| 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: Charles Cardale Babington; the Reverend John Barlow; Arthur Cayley; William Farr; Sir Henry Holland; Thomas Henry Huxley; William Hallows Miller; Sir Roderick Impey Murchison; Major-General Edward Sabine; William Sharpey; George Gabriel Stokes; Thomas Webster; Alexander William Williamson; Sir William Page Wood; Colonel Philip Yorke; the President, Benjamin Collins Brodie 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 a list of members and brief terms of reference. Letter from the Reverend T. Simpson Evans, accepting the role of Fairchild Lecturer. Letter from the Committee of the Humboldt Foundation in Berlin, inviting cooperation of the Royal Society, to be considered at the next meeting. An extension of time for admission to the Fellowship was granted to William Bird Herapath. Dr. Newton Heale granted permission to copy his paper on blood vessels of the lungs, in the archives, and to have engravings made from his original drawings by Mr. Basire. The Treasurer handed in a list of subscriptions to the Scientific Relief Fund amounting to £3,200, now invested in three percent annuities. Replacements for clauses 6-8 of those recommended for the Scientific Relief Fund were suggested by Archibald Smith, full text entered into the minutes. List of Fellows elected to the Scientific Relief Committee. Letter from George Scharf, National Portrait Gallery, 29 Great George Street, Westminster, 30 November 1859, to Wiliam Sharpey, Secretary to the Royal Society, full text entered into the minutes: requesting permission to refer and make sketches of portraits in the Society's apartments, acceded to. Letter from Colonel W.J. Smythe to the Treasurer, noting his travel to Fiji and stating that he would be happy to undertake scientific observations there: General Sabine stated that Smythe had been Director of the Magnetic Observatory at St. Helena; Smythe's offer referred to the Kew Committee. Professor Sedgwick forwarded a request from the Kendal Philosophical Library to be placed on the list to receive the Philosophical Transactions: the library to be informed that it will be able to buy future issues on favourable terms. Letter from J.P. Gassiot, Kew Observatory, 21 December 1859, to Dr. Sharpey, Secretary, the Royal Society, full text entered into the minutes: forwarding a resolution applying for £200 for the erection of a model magnetic house for colonial observations; £200 allocated from the Donation Fund for the purpose. Memorial from William Henry and Henry Maddock Stevenson stating that the annuities left to them by their father William Ford Stevenson were inadequate and appealing to the Royal Society to mitigate the hardship; the matter to be considered at the next meeting of Council. List of bills for payment, for printing, paper. litjhography and engraving. |