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: Sir William Burnett; Samuel Hunter Christie; Thomas Galloway; William Robert Grove; Leonard Horner; George Rennie; Peter Mark Roget; Dr. John Forbes Royle; Lieutenant-Colonel Edward Sabine; Dr. William Sharpey; Captain William Henry Smyth; Isaac Taylor; Charles Wheatstone; the President, Spencer Joshua Alwyn Compton, 2nd Marquess of Northampton, in the chair.
Among matters discussed or noted: minutes of the last meeting were read and confirmed. The Committee of Physiology recommended the award of a Royal Medal to Richard Owen, for his 1844 paper on belemnites; agreed, following a report from the Committee on Astronomy that no paper on that subject was worthy of the award. The President appointed the Reverend J. Ellis to give the Fairchild Lecture. Letter from Urban Le Verrier expressing gratification at the award of the Copley Medal. Mr. Goodsir applied for an extension to admission to the Fellowship, granted. Mr. Horner reported on behalf of the Charter Committee, full text entered into the minutes: providing a history of the Royal Society's Charters as part of a case presented to the Attorney-General and Solicitor-General for an opinion on whether Council could limit the number of Fellows elected by enacting a Statute. Opinion by John Jervis and David Dundas, Temple, 24 November 1846, full text entered into the minutes: stating that while the matter is not free from doubt, Council cannot pass a Statute limiting the number of Fellows to be elected in one year. Continuation of the Charter Report with an appendix containing thirteen recommendations on the election of Fellows. Mr Sibson applied for the addition of two engravings to his paper on the mechanism of respiration, granted. |