| 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; Captain William de Wiveleslie Abney; John Gilbert Baker; Thomas Lauder Brunton; William Henry Mahoney Christie; Warren de La Rue; Sir Frederick Evans; John Evans (Treasurer); George Carey Foster; Michael Foster; Francis Galton; James Whitbread Lee Glaisher; Hugo Muller; Osborne Reynolds; Osbert Salvin; George Gabriel Stokes; Alexander William Williamson; the President, Thomas Henry Huxley, in the chair.
Among matters discussed or noted: minutes of the last meeting read and approved. Death of Charles Watkins. Letter from Johnson, Budd and Johnson, 20 Austin Friars, London, 14 January 1884, to the Secretary of the Royal Society, full text entered into the minutes: under the will of Sir William Siemens, £1,000 has been left to the Royal Society; the executors cannot say exactly when this will be paid, but if not in the present year it will carry 4% interest from 19 November 1884. Letter from the War Office with enclosures reporting on the Nile Delta borings, progress has been impeded by unforeseen accidents including a cholera outbreak: resolved that the work should continue and a further £200 offered for better equipment and more efficient labour. Letter from the Treasury on the Armagh Observatory enclosing a copy letter to the Archbishop. Letter from Leonard Courtney, Treasury Chambers, 21 December 1883, to the Archbishop of Armagh [Marcus Beresford], full text entered into the minutes: having considered the Armagh Observatory with advice from the Royal Society, in light of the diminution of income under the Irish Church Act of 1869,, the Treasury will insert £2,000 into the coming year's estimates as grant-in-aid; the interest should be spent on the maintenance and purchase of instruments and apparatus, but no further government assistance will be given. The President made a statement following which a committee was appointed to collect accounts of the volcanic eruption at Krakatoa, with a sum of £25 allocated for the purpose. Report on Meteorological Stations by the British Association sub-committee tabled. Five candidates for Foreign Membership of the Royal Society were selected, to be proposed at the next Ordinary Meeting: Anton De Bary, Carl Gegenbaur, Leopold Kronecker, Rudolph Virchow and Gustav Wiedermann. Report of the Library Committee, including on the Catalogue of Scientific Papers supplement, grants and exchanges of journals and other publications, the sale of publications by Trubner and Company, and advertisements for Philosophical Transactions. The Treasurer noted that binding of old and rare books was continuing, the report was accepted and £150 allocated for the Catalogue of Scientific Papers. Authority given to the Soiree Committee to proceed with preparations for Receptions and Soirees, with £100 for expenses. Leave granted for extra copies of Proceedings papers to Drs. Brunton and Cash. £20 from the Donation Fund granted to Professor Schafer for research into the mechanism of secretion, and on the physiology of the heart in fishes. The President noted that the Earl of Carnarvon had withdrawn fron the Royal Society. The Assistant Secretary reported that a telescope paid for with £60 from the Government Grant Fund had been sold for £12 by the relatives of the late W.R. Birt, to Mr. J. Moysey of Leytonstone: Moysey, noticing the inscription on the tube, had informed the Society; the Assistant Secretary was asked to request that Moysey return the instrument and the question of reimbursement would be taken into consideration. List of bills for payment. |