I30 



NATURE 



\ Dec' i8, 1873 



The Secretaries now edit the ' Transactions ' and the 

 ' Proceedings ' which are found so useful by the Fellows, 

 and this latter duty has added considerably to their 

 labour. 



" The current revenue of the Society may be set down 

 at about 3,5 14/. of which 1,150/. are derived from rents 

 and dividends, and 517/. from the Stevenson bequest. 

 The latter sum, it is known, will increase as lives fall in. 

 The annual subscriptions amount to 1,126/. ; the entry 

 fees, estimated on an average of eleven years, will be 

 about 170/.; the compositions 360/.; the Transactions 

 will yield 276/. ; making the aggregate revenue under 

 these heads 1,932/. Your Committee see no reason 

 to believe that these sources of income are likely to 

 fail. 



"The current annual expenditure may be stated at 

 about 2,839/ ; namely, 1,1 77^- on printing ; 764/ on gra- 

 tuities, salaries and wages ; 187/ on books and binding ; 

 511/ on house expenses ; 200/ on Catalogue of Periodi- 

 cals. These items necessarily fluctuate, and the printing 

 bill last year exceeded considerably the above amount ; 

 but the amount just stated for printing is estimated from 

 an average of the last eleven years. The income of the 

 Society has thus for some years exceeded the expenditure 

 by about 675/ 



" Looking at the duties which now devolve upon the 

 Secretaries, of regularly attending Meetings, reading 

 papers, editing the ' Transactions,' preparing the ' Pro- 

 ceedings ' for publication, and other work, — looking also 

 at the remuneration which it is found desirable to give 

 gentlemen who discharge less onerous duties merely as 

 editors of literary works in the present day, — your Com- 

 mittee are of opinion that the Council will be acting quite 

 in conformity with the sound principles which were laid 

 down in Sir Isaac Newton's presidency, and have been acted 

 on since, by increasing the gratuity to each of the two 

 Secretaries. As the result of the inquiries made by your 

 Committee, they would suggest that the addition should 

 be 95/, raising each gratuity from 105/ to 200/ This 

 would involve an increase of 190/ in the expenditure. 



"The relations of the Society with foreign countries 

 may be largely extended, and your Committee are of 

 opinion that to accomplish this object 80/ may be 

 advantageously added to the 20/ now voted making the 

 annual gratuity of the Foreign Secretary 100/. 



" The total augmentation of the expenditure under this 

 arrangement would be 270/ leaving a probable annual 

 surplus of 400/. to be devoted to the numerous purposes 

 which fall naturally within the scope of the Society's 

 inquiries. 



" Your Committee are of the opinion that the offices 

 efficiently discharged will still be to a great extent hono- 

 rary ; and that so long as the Society itself is so fortunate 

 as to have able, industrious, and eminent men as its 

 Secretaries it will be still largely in their debt. 



" Should the finances of the Society, through any un- 

 foreseen circumstance, require it, there would not, your 

 Committee apprehend, be any difficulty in again revising 

 the scale of gratuities which may be awarded." 



This Report having been read, it was, on the motion 

 of the Treasurer, seconded by Sir R. Murchison, 



" Resolved -That the recommendation of the Commit- 

 tee respecting the honorarium to be given to the two 

 principal Secretaries be adopted.'' 



June 20, 1S72. — On the motion of Dr. Sharpey, [pur- 

 suant to notice given, seconded by Mr. Spottiswoode — 



" Resolved — That the following mode of procedure be 

 adopted in the nomination of Fellows to be recommended 

 to the Society for election as Council and Officers. 



" I. The subject of the new Council shall be taken into 

 consideration at a meeting of Council to be held on the 

 last Thursday of October ; and with the summons for 

 that meeting there shall be transmitted a list of the mem- 

 bers of the existing Council, with the number of their 



attendances at meetings up to that date ; also a list of 

 the Fellows of the Society, with an indication of those 

 who have at any time served on the Council, and the 

 dates of their service. 



"2. At this meeting the names of those members of 

 the existing Council who retire at the ensuing anniversary 

 shall be determined. Thereafter each member present 

 shall hand to one of the secretaries a list of not exceed- 

 ing ten Felloivs whom he proposes for the new Council, 

 of whom five shall not have already served on the Coun- 

 cil. Members not able to be present may send in similar 

 lists previous to the meeting. The several lists of names 

 so proposed shall then be read out by the secretary. 



" 3. Before the next following meeting, the president 

 and officers shall prepare a list of twenty-one names for 

 consideration by the Council, which list shall include ten 

 names selected from those proposed at the previous 

 meeting, or other names, if required to make up that 

 number. The list so prepared, together with a statement 

 of the names proposed and the number of votes given for 

 each, shall be sent out confidentially with the summons 

 for the ensuing meeting, at which meeting the names to 

 be finally recommended shall be balloted for. In taking 

 the ballot, a copy of the list prepared by the officers, with 

 such alterations as he may see fit to make therein, shall 

 be delivered by each member of the Council present and 

 voting, and the names found to have the majority of votes 

 shall form the list to be recommended to the Society. 



" The President and Council shall then nominate by 

 ballot, out of the proposed Council, the persons whom 

 they recommend to the Society for election to the offices 

 of President, Treasurer, Principal Secretaries, and Foreign 

 Secretary for the ensuing year." 



NOTES 

 The present year is already remarkable for the number ol 

 eminent scientific men who have gone over to the majority : and 

 now, just a its close, one of the most eminent in his own sphere 

 has taken his departure. A telegram dated New York, Decem- 

 ber 14, announces the death of Prof. Louis J. R. Agassiz, in his 

 67th year, he having been born in Switzerland in 1807. We 

 shall content ourselves with the bare announcement at present, 

 hoping to be able to give, next week, a memoir of the great 

 naturalist. Meantime we would draw the attention of our 

 readers to the interesting letter from Agassiz in our correspon- 

 dence column, sent us by Sir Philip de Malpas Grey-Egerton, 

 "Bart. 



A MEETING, with Sir William Armstrong as cliairman, was 

 held at Newcastle last Thursday, to consider the question of a 

 memorial to the late Mr. Albany Hancock. It was unanimously 

 resolved that the most appropriate memorial that could be raised 

 to Mr. Hancock, would be a Professorship of Natural History 

 in the Newcastle College of Physical Science, to be called, after 

 him and his friend and conjoint worker, the late Mr. Alder, the 

 "Hancock and Alder Professorship." Over 1,000/. were sub- 

 scribed at the meeting, and we have reason to hope, from the 

 general esteem in which the two men were held, the high value 

 of their labours, and the great wealth of Newcastle and the sur- 

 rounding district, that the remaining 4,000/. or 5,000/ necessary 

 to endow a Natur.tl History chair, will be raised without difli- 

 calty. Very few, even of scientific men, seem to be aware of 

 the great amount and value of the work done by Mr. Hancock. 

 The Rev. A. M. Norman, in speaking at the meeting, said that 

 the nature and extent of the work done by Mr. Hannock, would 

 only be realised by degrees. " His work was abstruse science; 

 work which was labour, day by day, under the microscope ; 

 work which was carried on from week to week antl from year- to 

 year, and which was published in the journals of the scientific 

 associations ; work which was at present not thoroughly under- 



