| 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: Captain Frederick John Owen Evans; John Evans; Albert Gunther; Daniel Hanbury; Sir John Hawkshaw; Thomas Henry Huxley; Joseph Norman Lockyer; Robert Mallet; Nevil Story Maskelyne; Charles Watkins Merrifield; Lyon Playfair; Sir Henry Creswicke Rawlinson; John Scott Burdon Sanderson; William Spottiswoode; George Gabriel Stokes; Alexander William Williamson; the President, Joseph Dalton Hooker, 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. Deaths of Benjamin Bond Cabbell and Colonel Philip Yorke. Appointment of Vice-Presidents. Reappointment of committees with lists of members and terms of reference: the Library Committee; the Soiree Committee; the Acton Estate Committee; Davy Bequest Committee; Challenger Committee; Transit of Venus Expeditions Committee; Government Grant Committee. £250 placed with the LIbrary Committee to meet the expenses of the Catalogue of Scientific Papers. A donation of 2 guineas made to the Parochial Schools at Mablethorpe. Letter from Robert Hall, Admiralty, 4 December 1874, to the Secretary of the Royal Society, Burlington House, full text entered into the minutes: noting the intention to send an expedition to Greenland and the North Pole in Spring 1875 and requesting scientific advice from the Royal Society; the letter referred to a committee created for the purpose. Additional committees appointed for the following purposes: to consider the letter of Mr. J.A. Broun; to secure observations of the approaching total eclipse of the Sun; to consider the question of fire insurance on the Society's property; and to consider and report on Statutes relating to the selection of candidates for election. The President noted that a list of potential Foreign Members would be presented at the next meeting. John Evans stated that he could not present his proposed motion, given that any change to the numbers on Council would necessitate an application for a new Royal Charter. £25 from the Donation Fund granted to T. Rupert Jones for the preparation of illustrations on fossil Entomostraca. A grant of the Philosophical Transactions for 1833 made to the Melborne Observatory on the application of E.J. Ellery. The Treasurer stated that a citation to appear at the Milan Court for defence of the claim under Giralamo Ponti's will had been received; no further action to be taken. Notice received from the solicitor of the Hounslow and Metropolitan Railway Company of an application to build a line crossing the Society's land at Acton, the Treasurer replying to express dissent. The President laid on the table the original memorial of the Royal Society to George III on observing the Transit of Venus in 1769; and an engraved dipoma on vellum from Lord Macclesfield's Presidency, both presented by Dr. Diamond. |