| 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: Captain William de Wiveleslie Abney; William Thomas Blanford; George Carey Foster; Michael Foster; Sir Archibald Geikie; Frederick Ducane Godman; John Hopkinson; George Downing Liveing; Joseph Norman Lockyer; Philip Henry Pye-Smith; John William Strutt, Lord Rayleigh; William Chandler Roberts-Austen; Edward Albert Schafer; Sir George Gabriel Stokes; the Treasurer, Sir John Evans; Sydney Howard Vines; the President, William Thomson, Lord Kelvin, in the chair.
Among matters discussed or noted: minutes of the last meeting read and approved. Death of Sir William Aitken. Letter from the Board of Trade requesting assistance in carrying out recommendations of the Colour Vision Committee report referred to the Committee. Letter from the Joint Eclipse Committee asking for Admiralty and Foreign Office assistance in mounting an expedition, the Secretary to write to both; full text of the letters entered into the minutes. Letter from the International Botanical Congress at Genoa, asking for Royal Society representatives; these to be selected by Officers. Surgeon Parke unable to undertake the Kilimanjaro Expedition, the grant therefore lapsing; £50 from the Government Grant to be allowed to Mr. Thiselton Dyer to obtain botanical specimens from Lieutenant Smith's expedition. Letter from the Director of the Nottingham Museum and Art Gallery requesting the loan of portraits of Edward Gray, William Hyde Wollaston and Hans Sloane, agreed on condition that expenses were covered. Annual report of the Meteorological Council presented. Report of the Catalogue Committee discussed with resolutions to use only periodicals to be found in the libraries of London's scientific societies, using abridgements and avoiding repetitions in titles; and the Committee to consider dividing the work by physical and biological subjects, as done with the Philosophical Transactions. Leave granted to Mr. James Bonwick and Mr. C. B. Clarke to make copies from manuscripts in the archives. Treasurer authorised to pay bills during recess and sums from the Scientific Relief Fund. All Library books to be returned by 31 July. Leave of absence granted to the Assistant Secretary. Bills for fire insurance, soirees and engraving. |