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 Bowdler Buckton; William Benjamin Carpenter; Robert Godwin-Austen; Joseph Henry Green; Joseph Dalton Hooker; James Clerk Maxwell; William Allen Miller; William Hallows Miller; William Sharpey; Henry John Stephen Smith; George Gabriel Stokes; James Joseph Sylvester; Charles Wheatstone; the Reverend Robert Willis; the President, Major-General Edward Sabine, in the Chair.
Among matters discussed or noted: minutes of the last meeting read and approved. New Members of Council made and subscribed to the declaration in lieu of the oath. Reappointment of the Library Committee with list of members and terms of reference. Draft report of the President and Council of the Royal Society respecting the proposal of erecting in Melbourne a telescope of greater optical power than any previously used in the southern hemisphere, to be transmitted to the Secretary of State for the Colonies, full text entered into the minutes: giving a brief history of the subject since the Royal Society and British Association joint memorial of 1850, noting Mr. Lassell's Malta-based telescope, and making recommendations on the type of telescope that should be constructed for Melbourne. Letter from Professor Tyndall requesting the use of copper plates and woodblocks from his Philosophical Transactions papers, granted. The Earl of Caithness was granted an extension of time for admission into the Fellowship. Letter from Lord Hatherton intimating his retirement from the Royal Society. Correspondence read between the President and Thomas Fairbairn concerning the intended gift by the Emperor of Russia of two vases in the Russian Department of the International Exhibition of 1861, the President to transmit a copy of the correspondence with a letter to Lord Napier at St. Petersburg. The Treasurer informed Council of the decease of the Society's tenant at Mablethorpe and a recommendation to make a fresh valuation of the land: Mr. Oakley recommended for the purpose. Letter from R.C. Carrington F.R.S., offering a manuscript with illustrations of sunspots 1853-1861 on condition it was accepted for publication in Philosophical Transactions: the Secretary stated the cost to be £700 and after discussion, it was deemed not expedient to accept the large expense involved. The Proceedings granted to the Naturforschende Gesellschaft of Freiburg in Breisgau. List of bills for printing and lithography. |