| 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; Henry Bence Jones; James Clerk Maxwell; William Allen Miller; William Hallows Miller; William Sharpey; Henry John Stephen Smith; Philip Henry Stanhope, 5th Earl Stanhope; George Gabriel Stokes; James Joseph Sylvester; the President, Major-General Edward Sabine, in the Chair.
Among matters discussed or noted: minutes of the last meeting read and approved. The seal of the Royal Society was affixed to diplomas for new Foreign Members. Report of the Library Committee on progress with the Catalogue of Scientific Memoirs, noting the form of its publication and that it should be offered to the Government to be printed at the cost of the nation in the first instance, although the committee had been in communication with a printer, who relayed terms for publication; the report received, £70 advanced for expenses, and the President and Officers authorised to take steps on printing by the Government. Candidates for Royal Society Medals proposed and seconded, including Charles Darwin, for the Copley Medal, nominated by George Busk. Letter from Major-General T.T. Pears, India Office, 2 June 1864, to the Secretary of the Royal Society, full text entered into the minutes: enclosing a letter from Lieutenant-Colonel Walker on the subject of the institution of pendulum experiments as part of the Trigonometrical Survey, at an estimated cost of £1,800 per annum for five years; Sir Charles Wood requests the Royal Society's opinion on the mode and value of the experiments. Letter from Lieutenant-Colonel J.F. Walker, 24 Blessington Road, Lee, 12 May 1864, to the Under Secretary of State for India, Military Department, full text entered into the minutes: submitting a letter of General Sabine on the importance of pendulum experiments and urging the Secretary of State to consider their incorporation into the work of the Trigonometrical Suvey of India, with an estimate of possible costs and noting the Royal Society's willingness to lend instruments; recommending Captain Basevi of the Royal (Bengal) Engineers as the officer best suited for the role of conducting the observations. The President stated that he had communicated with several Fellows for their opinions on the subject of pendulum experiments in India, and the letters were tabled and entered into the minutes:
Letter from the Reverend James Challis, Cambridge, 11 June 1864, to Edward Sabine.
Letter from William Hallowes Miller, Scroope Terrace, Cambridge, 14 June 1864, to Edward Sabine.
Letter from Henry John Stephen Smith, Ballio College, Oxford, 15 June 1864, to Edward Sabine.
Letter from the Reverend Thomas Romney Robinson, Observatory [Armagh], 15 June 1864, to Edward Sabine.
Letter from Colonel Sir George Everest, 10 Westbourne Street, 15 June 1864, to Edward Sabine.
Letter from Sir John Frederick William Herschel, Collingwood, 16 June 1864, to Edward Sabine.
Letter from George Gabriel Stokes, Cambridge, 22 June 1864, to Edward Sabine.
Note by General Edward Sabine, 23 June 1864, referring to the suggestions contained in Dr. Robinson's and Sir George Everest's letters.
Resolved that these letters were to be communicated to Major-General Pears as conveying the opinion of President and Council. The Treasurer reported that the platinum metre had been shown to Mr. Yates and members of the legislature. A deed of agreement was tabled, entered into with Mrs. Lyall as tenant of the Mablethorpe Estate. £50 from the Donation Fund granted to the Reverend Canon Selwyn for expenses in his photographic observations of the Sun. Professor Tyndall's fifth memoir on radiant heat to be the Bakerian Lecture. The Treasurer was authorised to purchase £1,000 of stock in 3 per cent Consols and was authorised to pay the account for coals during recess. All books belonging to the Library to be returned by 31 July and none lent out in August. Leave of absence granted to the Assistant Secretary. Proceedings granted as an exchange with the Medico-Natural Scientific Society of Jena. The first two indexes to Philosophical Transactions and Proceedings numbers granted to the Batavian Society of Rotterdam. Bills for payment, for lithograpy and binding. |