| 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: Henry Wentworth Dyke Acland; Sir George Back; the Reverend John Barlow; Thomas Bell; Edward Frankland; John Peter Gassiot; Philip Hardwick; Arthur Henfrey; Colonel Henry James; William Hallows Miller; Sir Roderick Impey Murchison; John Percy; Major-General Edward Sabine; William Sharpey; George Gabriel Stokes; Charles Wheatstone; the President, Benjamin Collins Brodie in the Chair.
Among matters discussed or noted: minutes of the last meeting read and approved. Dr. Acland made and subscribed to the declaration in lieu of the oath, as a new Member of Council. The President communicated a letter from the Earl of Porstmouth, acceeding to the Society's request to borrow Newton manuscripts. Letter from Mr. Oakley stating on what terms he thought the Society should lease land at Acton, referred to the Acton Estates Committee. Report from the Library Committee on progress and expenditure on the Catalogue of Scientific Memoirs: the report approved and the committee requested to continue the work with an additional £100 at their disposal. Mr. Weld presented a descriptive catalogue of the Society's pictures, which he had prepared following a Council resolution of 28 October 1858: the catalogue to be presented to the Library Committee for authorization to print. Colonel James gave notice that he intended to move at the next meeting that the portraits should be photographed and bound up with the catalogue of pictures. Professor James Forbes to be added to the Committee appointed to select a suitable present for Auguste Balmat. The Foreign Secretary intimated that the Royal Bohemian Society of Prague desired to exchange publications: resolved that Philosophical Transactions and Proceedings be sent. Application from the Societe d'Histoire Naturelle of Geneva for 1848 Philosophical Transactions agreed. The Entomological Society of Paris had only exchanged two numbers of their publication since 1836 and they were removed from the list of institutions receiving journals. A copy of Proceedings allowed to the Medical Society of Edinburgh. List of bills for payment for engraving. Selection of candidates for election to the Fellowship considered and adjourned. |