| 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 Augustus Abel; William Carruthers; Major-General Henry Clerk; William Crookes; John Evans (Treasurer); Augustus George Vernon Harcourt; Sir Joseph Dalton Hooker; Thomas Henry Huxley; Sir Henry Lefroy; Charles William Siemens; John Simon; George Gabriel Stokes; Allen Thomson; Alexander William Williamson; the President, William Spottiswoode, in the chair.
Among matters discussed or noted: minutes of the last meeting read and approved. Deaths of Edward Blore, George William Callender, George William Drory, Alfred Henry Garrod, Sir Rowland Hill, Sir John George Shaw Lefevre, Sir Thomas Maclear, John Miers, William Wilson Saunders, Sir Richard Vyvyan and Dr. Johann von Lamont. Letters of thanks for election received from Professor Schwann and Stas. Treasurer reported that £1,000 of the Government Grant had been received. Award of Royal Society Medals discussed and adjourned. Nominations of Fellows to be recommended for election to the new Council and a list of retiring Council Members. Report of the Meteorological Council circulated and forwarded to Government. Leave granted to Mr. Butlin to have 450 copies of the plates for his paper on tongue fur to be printed at his own expense: to Lawes and Gilbert for 500 copies of the abstract of their paper; and to Professor Ayrton for electrotypes. Letter to Sir Vincent Eyre from Madame G.M. Barrot, noting her intention to present a portrait of Captain George Manby by Sir Thomas Lawrence [Samuel Lane] to the Royal Society., offer accepted. Thanks given to Mr. Franks for his gift of Dr. Wollaston's thimble battery. Letter from the Colonial Office enclosing a letter and pamphlets from the Secretary of the Canadian Institute, Toronto, on the question of time reckoning and a common meridian, Professor Stokes to reply. Letter from Robert H. Scott, Meteorological Office, 116 Victoria Street, London, 16 October 1879, to the Secretary, the Royal Society, full text entered into the minutes: the Council are not prepared to recommend urging Government to publish in detail Allan Broun's Trevandrum observations, but these might be printed in similar style to the Greenwich Meteorological Observations, while the magnetic observations are outside their province; Professor Stokes to draft a letter to the Rajah of Travancore. The Duke of Devonshire presented a copy of the Catalogue of the Library at Chatsworth House, Council ordered that the Catalogue of Scientific Papers be presented to the Duke. The £1,500 bequeathed by Sir William Calverley Trevelyan had been invested in Great Northern Railway stock. £600 received for sale of land at Acton had been paid over to the Royal Society's bankers and the agreement for the sale was produced: the Royal Society seal affixed to both the stock transfers and land agreement. List of bills for payment, for printing, binding engraving, lithography and for other expenses. |