| 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 Bowman; Frederick Joseph Bramwell; William Benjamin Carpenter; William Carruthers; William Crookes; Peter Martin Duncan; Arthur Farr; William Henry Flower; George Carey Foster; John Russell Hind; Thomas Henry Huxley; John William Strutt, 3rd Baron Rayleigh; Sir George Henry Richards; Henry John Stephen Smith; William Spottiswoode; Balfour Stewart; George Gabriel Stokes; Allen Thomson; Alexander William Williamson; the President, Sir Joseph Dalton Hooker, in the chair.
Among matters discussed or noted: minutes of the last meeting read and approved. The President had nominated Sir Henry Lefroy as interim member of the Meteorological Council. Letter from R.R.W. Lingen, Treasury Chambers, 29 March 1878, to the Secretary, the Royal Society, Burlington House, full text entered into the minutes: noting that the Treasury had no objection to the annual reports of the Meteorological Council being presented at the end of the financial year. Letter from Dr. Bigsby presenting the Royal Society with seven copies of his Thesaurus Devonico Carboniferus, the Secretaries directed to report on a distribution list for these. Letter from the Trustees of the British Museum thanking the Society for a set of cellular plants collected by Dr. Balfour on a Transit of Venus expedition to Rodriguez. Letters of thanks from P. Tchebichef for the diploma of Foreign Membership and from Professor Dana for the Copley Medal. Letter from Dr. Radcliffe, withdrawing his name from the list of candidates for election to the Fellowship. Letter from Colonel Lane Fox concerning the appointment of a Scientific Commission to accompany H.M. Forces in the field. Selection of candidates for election was considered and adjourned. |