| 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: James Alderson; George Busk; Sir George Everest; Hugh Falconer; John Hall Gladstone; Joseph Dalton Hooker; Henry Bence Jones; James Clerk Maxwell; William Allen Miller; William Hallows Miller; William Pole; William Sharpey; Henry John Stephen Smith; Philip Henry Stanhope, 5th Earl Stanhope; George Gabriel Stokes; James Joseph Sylvester; Thomas Watson; Charles Wheatstone; the Reverend Robert Willis; the President, Major-General Edward Sabine, in the Chair.
Among matters discussed or noted: minutes of the last meeting read and approved. Earl Stanhope made and subscribed to the declaration in lieu of the oath, as a new Member of Council. Report of the Government Grant Committee, in the form of minutes of the meeting of 12 February 1864, full text entered into the minutes: the President represented the desirability of requesting information on researches from grantees, the Secretary to prepare a circular for that purpose; Mr. Gassiot's application for £100 for Kew instruments at the International Exhibition had been met from the Donation Fund; £250 granted to Mr. Carrington for printing his work on sunspots, 100 copies now at the disposal of the Royal Society; lists of applicants for grants with discussion and provisional awards made. Report of the Library Committee, noting progress made with the Catalogue of Scientific Memoirs and recommending the presentation of Montpellier Theses to the Royal College of Surgeons. Report of the Treasurer on Parliamentary Standards, in reponse to a letter from George A. Hamilton, Treasury Chambers, 4 February 1864, to Major-General Edward Sabine, full text entered into the minutes: requesting that the standards and their environment be inspected, with any necessary steps taken for their preservation; the subsequent inspection and findings by William Allen Miller and Walter White are described. The corporate seal of the Royal Society was attached to the agreement for letting lands at Mablethorpe to Mrs. Lyall. Request from Mr. F. Purdy for permission to use Royal Society rooms for a meeting of a Committee of the British Association on Weights and Measures, granted. Letter from Professor Tyndall requesting the use of woodblocks and copper plates, granted. The Foreign Secretary announced a third vacancy on the list of Foreign Members caused by the death of Heinrich Rose of Berlin: a list of candidates for Foreign Membership to be compiled for a subsequent meeting. The Naturforschender Verrein in Brunn to be placed on the list of institutions eligible to receive the Philosophical Transactions and Proceedings. Proceedings to be presented to the Societe des Sciences Naturelles du Grand-Duche de Luxembourg. |