| 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 George Back; the Reverend John Barlow; Edward Frankland; John Peter Gassiot; Philip Hardwick; Arthur Henfrey; Colonel Henry James; William Hallows Miller; Sir Roderick Impey Murchison; John Percy; William Sharpey; Archibald Smith; George Gabriel Stokes; 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. Report of the Government Grant Committee, in the form of minutes of a meeting of 26 January 1859, full text entered into the minutes: £50 of the balance of £628 9s. 4d., had been allocated to Mr. Mallet's Neapolitan earthquake photographs, now due; progress reports from James Thomson and Hyde Salter, with Dr. Carpenter reporting on progress with Echinoidermata specimen preparations, the comittee noting that these should be allocated to museums by Dr. Carpenter; list of applications with decisions on allocations of grants. In recognition of the services of Auguste Balmat of Chamouni, including glacier measurements with James Forbes and John Tyndall, a sum of 25 guineas was placed with a committee to procure a suitable testimonial. Reappointement of the Government Grant Committee, with a list of members to serve for three years. Dr. Sharpey noted that he had applied to the Treasury to reimburse half of the expenses for publishing Captain Maguire's magnetical observations in Philosophical Transactions. Letter from C.E. Trevelyan, Treasury Chambers, 20 November 1858, to the President of the Royal Society, full text entered into the minutes: on Sharpey's letter regarding Captain Maguire's observations, the Parliamentary Grant should cover all expenses. Letter from Benjamin Collins Brodie, Royal Society, 31 December 1858, to Sir Charles E. Trevelyan, full text entered into the minutes: the Society does not feel able to use the Government Grant for the costs of printing in Philosophical Transactions, or fo general Royal Society purposes. The Secretary reported that the use of the Great Hall and Lower Library had been granted to the Council for Military Education fro examinations in February. Letter from the Reverend Robert Walker, stating that he was not able to deliver the Fairchild Lecture this year: Henry Stebbing was nominated instead. Two guineas was granted to the parochial schools at Mablethorpe. Letter from John Davy, noting that he wished to present Sir Humphry Davy's set of Philosophical Transactions to the library of the Kendal Literary and Philosophical Society, and he applied for volumes 1825-1829, which were lacking: Council gave permission for volumes 1828 and 1829, but too few copies were available for donation from earlier dates. Application from the Literary and Philosophical Society of Manchester publications, granted. Letter from the Secretary of the London Library requesting to be placed on the list for receipt of Philosophical Transactions, not acceded to. Mr Gassiot proposed the repeal of Chapter IX Section 3 relating to the announcing of presents to the Society, with a draft of a replacement Statute. Letter from J. Masterman junior submitting a proposal to erect a new Crystal Palace at Muswell Hill and requesting that the Royal Society take the initiative in founding a home for men of science in reduced circumstances, refused. List of bills for furniture, picture frame cleaning and regilding, and lithography. |