| 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; William Huggins; Thomas Henry Huxley; William Allen Miller; William Hallows Miller; William Sharpey; George Gabriel Stokes; Colonel Alexander Strange; Thomas Thomson; the President, Lieutenant-General Edward Sabine, in the Chair.
Among matters discussed or noted: minutes of the last meeting read and approved. Letter from W.G. Romaine, Admiralty, 14 July 1868, to the President of the Royal Society, full text entered into the minutes: following the submission by Dr. Carpenter and Professor Thomson on a sea-bottom dredging mission, the steam vessel Lightning will be made available for the purpose. Letters were read from the Assistant Secretary of the National Portrait Exhibition, giving thanks for loans and presenting photographs of the several portraits. The Treasurer reported that pictures and property of the Royal Society had been removed from the Meeting Room and Lower Library and that pictures had been rehung in the Council Room, Saloon and other apartments. Letter from the Reverend Charles William Knyvett, presenting, on behalf of his nephew, a portrait of Dr. James Jurin, thanks given. The Treasurer read a statement on the Oliveira Bequest, with a history of actions taken to date. Letter from Few and Company, 28 July 1868, to Walter White, full text entered into the minutes: on Sir John Stuart's decision on the Oliveira Bequest with a copy opinion from counsel of the Royal Geographical Society; Few's opinion is that the Royal Society should join an appeal. Opinion of W.H.G. Bagshawe, Lincoln's Inn, 16 October 1868, Beaumont v.Oliveira, full text entered into the minutes: resolved that Few and Company be authorised to proceed with an appeal. Letter from Dr. Bigsby sending 50 copies of his Thesaurus Siluricus, the same number presented to the Geological Society, in accordance with conditions on a £100 Government Grant Fund alowance: a committee formed for the distribution of copies. John Ball and the Reverend H.B. Tristram were granted extensions of time for admission into the Fellowship. Adjudication of Royal Society Medals, discussed and adjourned. Letter from Captain E.A. Inglefield, 10 Grove End Road, 3 October 1868, to the Assistant Secretary of the Royal Society, full text entered into the minutes: requesting copies of the Philosophical Transactions left unclaimed because of his overseas service in the Crimea; the reply to be that owing to conditions in the Statutes, Council cannot comply. Letter from H.W. Chisholm, Warden of Standards, 7 Old Palace Road, 19 October 1868, to the Secretary of the Royal Society, full text entered into the minutes: returning the Royal Society's Troy Pound, giving results of comparisons with other standard pounds, and requesting the loan of the platinum line standard now with Mr. J. Sims, the request granted. Letter from Colonel Sir Henry James, Ordnance Survey Office, Southampton, 9 October 1868, to the Secretary of the Royal Society, full text entered into the minutes: noting the successful completion of the Ordnance Survey of Jerusalem, towards which the Royal Society contributed £108; it is now proposed to survey the Sinai peninsula, the expedition to include the Reverend F.W. Holland and an oriental scholar at a cost of £1500, £930 of which has been raised; £50 from the Donation Fund to be granted as a contribution. Letter from Mr. Griffith, British Association requesting the use of copper plates and lithographic illustrations from two of Mr. Huggins' papers, granted. Letter from Mr. Bierens de Haan applying for the gift of the Catalogue of Scientific Papers for the University of Leiden , granted. List of bills for payment, for paper, lithography and for other expenses. After a Committee of Papers had been held, Council resumed. £350 to be placed at the disposal of the Library Committee to meet expenses of the Catalogue of Scientific Papers. |