4(i6 Royal Society, 



The Right Hon. Sir Joseph Banks, Bart. President. 

 Samuel Lysons, Esq. Treasurer. 

 WiUiam Hyde Wollaston, M.D.I s, , . 

 Taylor Combe, Esq. J> Secretaries. 



Of the Old Council. Of (he New Council. 



Higlit Hon. Sir .los. Banks, Bart. William Allen, Esq. 

 Sir C. Blagden, Knt. William Blake, Esq. 



S. Goodenoughj Ld. Bp. of Car- Rev. Charles Burney. 



lisle. Charles William, Earl of 



Taylor Combe, Esq. Charleville. 



Samuel Lysons, Esq. Davies Giddy, Esq. M.P. 



George, Earl of Moiton. Sir Everard Home, Bart. 



Thomas Murdoch, Esq, James Horsl)in-gh, Esq. 



J. Pond, Es(i. A.R. /Uexander Marcet, M.D. 



William Charles Wells, M.D. Thomas, Earl of Selkirk. 



Wm. Hyde WoUaston, M.D. Henry Warburton, Esq. 



Thomas Young, M.D. 



After the election the Members dined together at the Crown 

 and Anchor Tavern in the Strand. 



Dec. S. This night the Society assembled after the Anni- 

 versary; when the President's elaborate address on adjudging the 

 Copleyan medal to J. Ivory, Esq. of the Royal Military College, 

 Sandhurst, was read. Sir Joseph took a lucid and comprehensive 

 view of the different mathematical papers laid before the Society 

 by Mr. fvory, particularly his Investigation of Spheroids. He 

 then proceeded to a history of this abstruse branch of mathema- 

 tics. Sir Isac Newton's principles began by assuming the earth 

 to be a homogeneous fluid ; but the theory did not correspond 

 with actual experiment. Maclaurin was the first who demon- 

 strated that a homogeneous fluid in rotatory motion would always 

 remain globular. He was followed by Simpson. Their labours 

 were adopted and extended by,Lagrange in the Berlin Memoirs. 

 The question is now finally established by Mr. Ivory, whose pa- 

 pers in the Transactions of the Royal Society have attracted the 

 attention, and obtained the approbation, of M. Legendre. 



The reading of Dr. Brewster's experiments on animal, vege- 

 table, and mineral substances which depolarize light, was con- 

 tinued. X 



Dec. 15 and 22. Part of a paper by Mr. Travers, describing 

 the structure of the Eye, its different organs, and power of 

 adopting vision to distant and near objects, was read : the re- 

 mainder was postponed till a future meeting, and the Society ad- 

 journed two Thursdays. 



LXXV. lUr 



