| 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: William Grylls Adams; Thomas Lauder Brunton; Heinrich Debus; John Evans (Treasurer); Michael Foster; Francis Galton; Olaus Henrici; Joseph Lister; Joseph Prestwich; Osborne Reynolds; Osbert Salvin; Warington Wilkinson Smyth; George Gabriel Stokes; Edward James Stone; Alexander William Williamson; the President, William Spottiswoode, in the chair.
Among matters discussed or noted: minutes of the last meeting read and approved. Letter from General A.C. Cooke, Ordnance Survey Office, Southampton, 11 December 1882, to William Spottiswoode, full text entered into the minutes: giving thanks for the £100 grant from the Donation Fund and forwarding a memorandum of 12 December 1882, addressed to the Deputy Adjutant-General, Royal Engineers, on steps necessary to measure the exteriors of the Great Pyramids of Egypt. Letter from Leonard Courtney, Treasury Chambers, 8 December 1882, to the President of the Royal Society, full text entered into the minutes: on an application for funding from the Solar Physics Committee, forwarding a letter from the Science and Art Department. Letter from F.R. Sandford, Science and Art Department, London, 30 November 1882, to the Secretary, H.M. Treasury, full text entered into the minutes: noting the scientific importance of the observations proposed by the Solar Physics Committee, requesting a decision on the funding of an 1883 Eclipse Expedition, calling attention to the funding of the late Egypt Expedition from the Royal Society's private funds and listing membership of the Solar Physics Committee. Letter from George Gabriel Stokes, 29 November 1882, to the Secretary, Science and Art Department, full text entered into the minutes: requesting assistance to mount an expedition to the South Pacific, to observe the total solar eclipse of 6 May 1883 along the line north to west from the Marquesas Islands; a ship of war would be needed to sail from San Francisco and the cost should be not more than £2,000; it is believed that French observers will be sent to the islands of Flint and Caroline and the United States may aid an expedition. Draft letter, George Gabriel Stokes, the Royal Society, Burlington House, London, 23 December 1882, to the Secretary of the Treasury, full text entered into the minutes: outlining the need for a South Pacific eclipse expedition, possibly from Caroline Island, discussing costs and arrangements, the costs being met by an underspend in the Government Grant from the previous year, caused by changing adminstrative arrangements. Letter from Charles Carpmael, Meteorological Office, Toronto, Canada, 2 December 1882, to George Gabriel Stokes, full text entered into the minutes: thanking the Society in reference to arrangements to retain the Toronto Observatory books of observations. Leave granted to Clay and Company for electrotypes from a paper by Sir William Thomson. Seal of the Royal Society affixed to a contract for the purchase of ground rents and reversion of premises of 57 Basinghall Street. The Treasurer authorised to complete the purchase of nine houses in Wharton Road, West Kensington, fo £2,524 10s. Mr. Rix's salary to be increased by £10 to £170 per annum. Report in the form of minutes of a meeting of the Government Grant Committee on 15 December 1882, full text entered into the minutes: lists of applications considered by Sub-Committees A-C, with grant recommendations made by Sub-Committees A-D; amended lists of grants from the sub-committees confirmed. Sub-Committee D to discuss the question of 'personal grants' versus 'grants for assistance' to advise the other sub-committees. A schedule to be kept of instruments and specimens of permanent value. The Officers to convene a meeting of the general Government Grant Committee on receipt of the Sub-Committee D report. |