| 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: George Busk; Sir George Everest; Hugh Falconer; John Hall Gladstone; Henry Bence Jones; James Clerk Maxwell; William Allen Miller; William Hallows Miller; William Pole; William Sharpey; Archibald Smith; Henry John Stephen Smith; Philip Henry Stanhope, 5th Earl Stanhope; George Gabriel Stokes; James Joseph Sylvester; 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. Request from the Committee of the Female School of Art, Queen Square, to use the Great Hall at Burlington House for prize-giving, acceeded to. Nominations of Claude Bernard, J.B.L. Foucault and Adolph Wurtz for election as Foreign Members, confirmed by ballot. Application from James Yates on behalf of Mr. C.H. Dowling for permission to have the French two-marc weight weighed by Messrs. Ladd and Oertling: granted, so long as the weight did not leave the Society's apartments. Letter from Colonel Sir Henry James, Ordnance Survey Office, Southampton, 23 May 1864, to the Secretary, the Royal Society, full text entered into the minutes: as part of operations on the Great Arc of Parallel from Valentia, Ireland, to the River Oursk in Russia, the Office is comparing standards of length, and has apparatus for the purpose; James asks if one of the Royal Society's standard metres could be brought to Southampton; the loan agreed, under conditions to be made by the Foreign Secretary. Letter from the Reverend J.B. Reade, Bishopborne Rectory, Canterbury, 21 May 1864, to William Sharpey, full text entered into the minutes: presenting a bust of William Hey, given to his father by Benjamin Gott of Leeds, which is a good likeness, despite not being as durable as marble, accepted with thanks. Letter from Purnell B. Purnell, requesting permission to have a copy made of the Vanderbank portrait of Sir Isaac Newton, agreed. £10 from the Donation Fund granted to Benjamin Clarke, for publication. Communication from the Entomological Society on the inapplicability of Civil Service rules to Assistants in the scientific departments of the British Museum, and requesting that the Royal Society help in petitioning Parliament on the subject: the reply to be that Council does not deem it expedient, but if the Entomological Society would produce a statement on the matter, the President would bring it to the attention of the Board of Trustees of the British Museum. Letter from Burjorjee Sorabjee Ashburner, Bombay, 13 April 1864, to the Foreign Secretary, full text entered into the minutes: offering to present manuscripts in Zend, Pehlui and Persian to the Royal Society, with conditions; accepted, with thanks. Letter from John Oakley, 10 Waterloo Place, Pall Mall, 14 May 1864, to Walter White, full text entered into the minutes: redivision of Acton Common fields is nearing completion and he encloses a statement with a deficiency of account; he proposes that this is shared between landowners at a per acre rate; the Treasurer to act in accordance with the Goldsmith's Company, which owns the largest share of the inclosure. Letter from Edward Sabine, Burlington House, 30 April 1864, to Lieutenant-Colonel J.F. Walker, full text entered into the minutes: on the importance of combining pendulum experinents with the astronomical and geodesical measurements about to be made under Walker's superintendence at the principal stations of the Indian Survey; giving background and offering the use of the Royal Society's instruments at Kew Observatory for the purpose. Lists of names of candidates for the award of Royal Society Medals. List of bills for payment, for printing and paper. |