| Description | Printed minutes containing matters laid before Council, the Royal Society's governing body of Fellows, with records of decisions taken.
Commencing with a list of Council members present: Frederick Currey; Warren de La Rue; Sir Philip de Malpas Grey-Egerton; William Henry Flower; John Gwyn Jeffreys; John Marshall; Augustus Matthiessen; William Hallowes Miller; Robert Arthur Talbot Gascoyne-Cecil, Marquis of Salisbury; William Sharpey; Charles William Siemens; Archibald Smith; Henry John Stephen Smith; George Gabriel Stokes; John Tyndall; Alexander William Williamson; the President, General Sir Edward Sabine, in the chair.
Among matters discussed or noted: minutes of the last meeting read and approved. Letter from Vernon Lushington, Admiralty, 10 May 1870, to William Sharpey, Secretary of the Royal Society, Burlington House, full text entered into the minutes: the Admiralty will make available the steam-vessel Porcupine for the proposed deep sea research and will defray the messing costs of the scientific gentlemen. £50 from the Scientific Relief Fund recommended to be approved for an applicant. The President presented correspondence on the Melbourne Telescope. Names added to the lists of suggestions for Royal Society Medals and to the list of candidates for Foreign Membership. Anders Jonas Angstrom of Upsala and Joseph Antoine Ferdinand Plateau of Ghent recommended for election as Foreign Members, to be put to the ballot for confirmation at a future meeting of Council. Letter from Lieutenant-Colonel Strange in continuation of previous correspondence, suggesting the formation of a committee to report on three questions on meteorological standards: the reply to be that Council would aid an enquiry undertaken by competent persons, but would not form a committee. Letter from the Secretary of the Royal Astronomical Society stating that a committee had been formed to consider arrangements for observing the December eclipse of the Sun, and asking for co-operation with the Royal Society's committee for this purpose, Council approved. Letter from George Biddell Airy, Royal Observatory, Greenwich, 18 May 1870, to Sir Edward Sabine, full text entered into the minutes: noting the decision of the Royal Astronomical Society to grant £250 for the purpose of alleviating expenses of scientists wishing to travel to the southern Spain to observe the solar eclipse in December, and asking of the Royal Society would make a similar allowance: Council undertook to provide the same amount, from the Government Grant or from some other source. Bill for payment, for lithography. |