| 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: Warren de La Rue; William Henry Flower; William Huggins; John Gwyn Jeffreys; John Marshall; William Hallowes Miller; Rear-Admiral George Henry Richards; Robert Arthur Talbot Gascoyne-Cecil, Marquis of Salisbury; William Sharpey; Charles William Siemens; Archibald Smith; Henry John Stephen Smith; 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. The President announced the vacancy which had taken place owing to the death of the Treasurer, Dr. William Allen Miller: Council put on record their deep sense of loss, to be communicated to Dr. Miller's family. Payment of £800 to Mr. Grubb for the construction of a telescope had become due, and a cheque was signed by the Senior Secretary, in the absence of the Treasurer, and a receipt received: any further cheques to be drawn in the same way. Mr. Gassiot and William Spottiswoode proposed for election as Treasurer, both received the same number of votes. Letter from Laycock, Dyson and Laycock, Huddersfield, 15 July 1870, to Walter White, Assistant Secretary of the Royal Society, full text entered into the minutes: the parties to the will of Dr. John Davy do not wish his gift to be burdened with duty and have instructed that a cheque for £72 15s. 6d., be sent to the Royal Society; Reverend A. Davy, Dr. and Mrs. Rolleston were thanked for the contribution to the Davy Medal Fund. Resolved that the telescope belonging to the Society, now lent to Dr. Huggins, be insured. Letter from J. Cosmo Melville, India Office, 3 October 1870, to the Secretary of the Royal Society, full text entered into the minutes: sending a copy letter from Colonel Walker of the Great Trigonometrical Survey of India on pendulum observations carried out by Captain Basevi; the Duke of Argyll asks for suggestions from the Royal Society in reference to any supplementary measures that may be necessary; the matter referred to a committee set up for the purpose and the Secretary of State for India to be informed that a full answer will follow the committee's report. The award of Royal Society Medals was discussed and adjourned. Admiral Richards noted the return of the vessel Porcupine from the scientific expedition of the last season. Dr. A.W. Williamson appointed a member of the Scientific Relief Committee. Letter from General de Bulow, soliciting bronze copies of the Royal Society's Medals for the Royal Collection at Copenhagen, the Assistant Secretary to give directions to the Mint to copy the Copley and Rumford Medals. The President reported that he had given two impressions of the Nebula in Orion to Dr. Gould for the Argentine Observatory in Cordova. List of bills for payment for printing, paper and for other expenses. |