| 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: William Henry Barlow; Thomas George Bonney; George Busk; Sir Richard Assheton Cross; Edwin Dunkin; Alexander John Ellis; John Evans (Treasurer); Thomas Archer Hirst; William Huggins; Thomas Henry Huxley; Daniel Oliver; 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. Death of the Earl of Beaconsfield. Seal of the Royal Society affixed to the transfer of £600 of Midland Railway stock for the Keck Bequest endowment of the Foreign Secretary. Professor Stokes reported on a dialogue with Major John Herschel on the invariable pendulums: Council was not expressing an opinion in the matter, rather relaying information from the Kew Committee memorandum. Letter from Julian Pauncefote, Foreign Office, 23 April 1881, to the Secretary, the Royal Society, Burlington House, full text entered into the minutes: relaying a note from the Russian Ambassador, relating to a proposed chain of meteorological stations in the polar regions, referred to the Meteorological Council. List of suggested names for the award of Royal Society medals, to be adjudicated at a subsequent meeting. Bill for payment for lithography. |