| 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: George Busk; Arthur Cayley; Major-General Henry Clerk; Edwin Dunkin; John Evans (Treasurer); Thomas Henry Huxley; Sir Henry Lefroy; Alfred Newton; William Odling; Sir James Paget; William Henry Perkin; George Gabriel Stokes; Alexander William Williamson; the President, William Spottiswoode, in the chair.
Among matters discussed or noted: minutes of the last meeting read and approved. Dr. Allen Thompson to be requested to write an obituary notice for Dr. William Sharpey. Leave was granted to Mr. J.T. Brown to take the dimensions of Appold's automatic hygrometer and temperature regulator in the instrument collection. Letter from Dr. Spencer F. Baird, Smithsonian Institution, Washington D.C., 15 April 1880, to Alexander William Williamson, Foreign Secretary, the Royal Society, London, full text entered into the minutes: requesting biographical details of James Smithson, in preparation for a biography and history of his bequest; copies of notices of Mr. Macie (Smithson) were tabled and ordered to be forwarded, but little can be discovered. Letter from P.G. Tait, Secretary of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, 21 April 1880, to George Gabriel Stokes, Secretary, the Royal Society, full text entered into the minutes: responding to the India Office's request that the Edinburgh Society should consult with London on the publication of Mr. J. Allan Broun's Trevancore observations and enclosing a memorandum advocating for the publication in full of his second series of observations; referred to the Meteorological Council for advice. Letter from Professors Liveing and Dewar to Thomas Henry Huxley, prompting a resolution on substantial changes in papers or abstracts to be communicated to the Professors. Seal of the Royal Society affixed to a contract of sale for a piece of the Acton Estate to Mr. Scruby. £351 12s. 11d. from the sale of land at Acton to the Reverend A. Dunn had been received. £50 from the Scientific Relief Fund to be placed in the hands of Dr. Roscoe, and £40 in the hands of Dr. Russell, for the benefit of applicants. The name of Andre Edmond Becquerel added to the list of candidates for the Rumford Medal. |