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: Francis Baily; John George Children; Samuel Hunter Christie; John Frederick Daniell; Thomas Galloway; George Rennie; Peter Mark Roget; Captain William Henry Smyth; Robert Bently Todd; Charles Wheatstone; the Treasurer, John William Lubbock, in the chair.
Among matters discussed or noted: minutes of the last meeting were read and confirmed. Letter from Mr. Snell explaining the charges for lengthening the Library circular staircase; bill to be paid, with another for coals. Letter from Anthony Panizzi, British Museum, 14 February 1839, to Peter Mark Roget, full text entered into the minutes: agreeing to the terms set out in the President's letter, with amendments, stating that he would be willing to sign an agreement in the same spirit; once an agreement is signed he would be ready to apply to the selected referee; the letter referred to Mr. Few. Selection by ballot of four Foreign Members to be recommended to the Society for election: Felix Savart, Macedoine Melloni, Adolphe Quetelet and Christopher Hansen. Letter from Edward Sabine, Tortington, 8 February 1839, to the President of the Royal Society, full text entered into the minutes: he has learned from a letter from Whewell that Lord Minto apprehends that fixed magnetic observatories should precede an Antarctic Expedition, whereas the appointment of both should be simultaneous; the Van Diemen's Land [Tasmania; Lutruwita or Truwana] observatory might be worked by Expedition members, which would result in a saving and in the opinion of Professor Lloyd, who had volunteered to supervise the simultaneous observations, the two projects cannot be separated; with comments on magnetometers, fit persons for the observations, and the substitution of Madras [Chennai] for Ceylon as a station. Council concurs with Sabine's opinions and these to be communicated to Lord Minto. Since the last meeting, William Henry Fox Talbot's paper on photogenic drawing had been published verbatim in the Atheneum newspaper and therefore it should not be published in Proceedings. |