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 Benjamin Carpenter; Jacob Lockhart Clarke; Captain Douglas Galton; John Peter Gassiot; John Hall Gladstone; William Huggins; Thomas Henry Huxley; William Allen Miller; William Hallows Miller; John Phillips; William Sharpey; Colonel William James Smythe; George Gabriel Stokes; Thomas Thomson; the President, Lieutenant-General Edward Sabine, in the Chair.
Among matters discussed or noted: minutes of the last meeting read and approved. The President stated that he had communicated with the Master of the Rolls on the Patent Office documents, and had been informed that their transmission was premature, and that no action would be required of the Royal Society at present. Draft letter, William Sharpey, Secretary of the Royal Society, to James Higston, full text entered into the minutes: on the proposed annual income of £250 for a prize essay on the immortality of the soul, expressing regrets that the President and Council did not deem it expedient to proceed. Lists of candidates for Royal Society Medals, to be proposed, seconded, and added to, at subsequent meetings. Letter from General Hutt, Secretary to the Royal Hospital at Chelsea, requesting to have access to any records relating to the transfer of land held by that establishment, the request acceded to. Resolved that the Astronomical Society of Leipzig be placed on the list of institutions entitled to receive Philosophical Transactions and Proceedings. Letter from Lieutenant Herschel to Mr. Stokes giving an account of his preliminary trials with instruments sent by the Royal Society to observe the approaching solar eclipse, with a statement of expenses: The Treasurer was authorised to pay these. The President stated that he had give permission to the Civil Service Commissioners to use the Meeting Room for Indian Civil Service examinations. Bill for payment, for gas. |