Page:History of the Royal Astronomical Society (1923).djvu/27

 1820-30] ROYAL ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY 13 In November (Colebrooke in the Chair ; 9 members and 7 Associates proposed, 6 members elected, 3 admitted) it was an- nounced that a Committee had handed a paper of instructions to Captain Basil Hall (in 1822 the same instructions were handed to Captain Owen, who was going to the east coast of Africa). Attention was drawn to the favourable position of the moon for occulting the Pleiades ; two books were presented, and also a bronze medal of Copernicus presented by Peter Slawinski, one of the 14 who originally met on January 10 ; Groombridge read a paper on star-reductions ; and Gauss on a new meridian circle at Gottingen. In December (Dr. Pearson, Treasurer, in the Chair) 2 members and 4 Associates were proposed, 8 members and i Associate (Biot) elected and 4 members admitted. Four books were presented ; and papers read by Groombridge (ephemeris of Vesta) and Baily (solar eclipse of 1820 September 7). Troughton began his paper on the Repeating Circle and Altazimuth, but neither this meeting nor that in January sufficed for the complete reading of it, and it occupied also the whole of the March meeting (February being devoted to the annual meeting, according to the practice still followed). But the story was again taken up in April by George Dollond, who gave his views about the Repeating Circle : so that four consecutive ordinary meetings were largely devoted to this instrumental description, the last being relieved only by some observations of comet Pons-Nicollet sent by Olbers. These brief notes of the first year's work will suffice to illustrate its nature. It is needless to say more of the papers themselves, ch are all printed fully in the first volurrie^)TThe~M^m. R.A.S. } There was not much to attract the populace : but the men who formed the backbone of the Society were made of stern stuff, and often when the ordinary meeting was over, sat down again to carry on the work which they had failed to complete at Council in the afternooiv Council met at three o'clock, and probably continued its labours until the hour for the dinner at which we know (from other records) that the chief councillors generally assembled. From this they came back to the eight o'clock meeting, with its frequent appendix of an adjourned Council. In one burst of enthusiasm, Sir John Herschel moved that the meetings of the Society should be held twice in the month during the session, but after some discussion thereon he withdrew the motion (Council Minutes, 1821 April). But the Council had occasionally to meet twice. We may rightly infer that the work of the Council in those early days was by no means the least important part of the work of the new Society. The irreverent may perhaps hint at the attraction of the Club dinner, but it is a significant fact (which