| 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; Frederick Currey; Warren De La Rue; William Henry Flower; Captain Douglas Galton; John Peter Gassiot; John Marshall; William Allen Miller; William Hallows Miller; Joseph Prestwich; Captain George Henry Richards; William Sharpey; Archibald Smith; George Gabriel Stokes; Colonel Alexander Strange; the President, Lieutenant-General Sir Edward Sabine, in the Chair.
Among matters discussed or noted: minutes of the last meeting read and approved. Letter received during recess and responses, including from Mr. C. Jackson of the Surtees Society, Dr. Willis, Dr. Carter, Mr. Gore, Dr. Remard, and Mr. Spiller. The Secretary reported that a copy of the Ordnance Survey Plans of Jerusalem had been presented by Colonel Sir Henry James. A bronze anniversary medal was received from the Batavian Society of Experimental Philosophy at Rotterdam. Letter from George Rolleston, Park Grange, Oxford, 26 June 1869, to William Sharpey, full text entered into the minutes: noting that the portrait of John Davy by Gambardella had arrived safely and acknowledging the conditions under which it was being loaned to Mrs. Rolleston; the portrait of Humphry Davy by Jackson is available for the artist of the Davy Medal. The Treasurer reported on a letter from the Royal Mint stating that the value of the Davy plate was £736 18s. 5d. and that most of this had been invested in Midland Railway stock. Legal proceedings in the Oliveira will case were closed and the Treasurer had received £1,506 17s. 1d., being the Society's legacy after deductions. Letter from D. Smith, Son, and Oakley, 10 Waterloo Place, Pall Mall, 13 August 1869, to Walter White, full text entered into the minutes: on encroachments into the Society's land at Acton, it was determined that the boundary had been fairly placed and the Society's land improved by the new sewer; the obstruction caused by the South-Western Company's signal box had subject to a notice of removal. Letter from Henry Bence Jones showing the state of the subscription list for the Faraday Memorial. Letter from W.R. Malcolm, Secretary, Public Schools' Commission, 32 Abingdon Street, Westminster, to the Secretary of the Royal Society, full text entered into the minutes: enclosing the new statutes appointing the governing body of Eton School, and the constitution of the governing body of Westminster School; the appointment of one member of each governing body is vested in the Royal Society. Letter from the Provost of Eton forwarding the statute referring to Eton School, acknowledged. Council to elect two members of the schools' councils at the next meeting. Mr. J.F. Bateman would attend the opening of the Suez Canal on behalf of the President, following an invitation from His Highness the Khedive. Adjudication of Royal Society medals was discussed and adjourned. Captain Richards informed Council of the return of the vessel Porcupine from its scientific expedition: Dr. Carpenter was requested to obtain reports of the work of his scientific colleagues, to be incorporated into a general preliminary report on the expedition to be laid before the Society on 18 November. Letter from Colonel Strange on the subject of establishing standard instruments for determining atmospheric pressure and temperature, referred to a committee for the purpose. The Treasurer noted that he had been obliged to overdraw by £47 for the purposes of the Catalogue of Scientific Papers: this to be repaid to him and credited to the Library Committee account. List of bills for payment, for printing and for other services. |