| 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: Henry Edward Armstrong; William Edward Ayrton; William Henry Mahoney Christie; William Boyd Dawkins; Michael Foster; Archibald Geikie; James Whitbread Lee Glaisher; Hugo Muller; Alfred Newton; John William Strutt, Lord Rayleigh; Sir William Roberts; William Chandler Roberts-Austen; Edward Albert Schafer; Sir George Gabriel Stokes; General Richard Strachey; Joseph John Thomson; Thomas Edward Thorpe; Sydney Howard Vines; General James Thomas Walker; the President, Sir William Thomson, in the chair.
Among matters discussed or noted: minutes of the last meeting read and approved. New members of Council subscribe to the declaration in lieu of the oath. Appointment of Vice-Presidents. Re-appointments of the Library Committee, the Soiree and House Committee, the Electric Lighting Committee, the Catalogue of Scientific Papers Committee, the Challenger Committee, the Colour-Vision Committee, and the Mountain Observatory Committee. Letter from the Board of Trade requesting the nomination of Fellows to advise on actions from the Weights and Measures Act to fix standards for the ohm, the ampere and the volt; William Thomson and Lord Rayleigh nominated. Letter from the India Office on the proposed publication of meteorological observations from Trevandrum by Mr. Eliot; the Meteorological Office requested to send the manuscript to the India Office to be transmitted to the Government of India. Report of the Chelsea Garden Committee entered into the minutes in full: noting the history of the gardens, Sir Hans Sloane's intentions on their upkeep and the sum of money set aside for that via the Society of Apothecaries; the President of the Royal Society having met the the Master of the Apothecaries, the scheme to sell the land for building had now been set aside, but the committee suggest preparations in case of the scheme being advanced at some future time. Sums of £25 and £60 from the Scientific Relief Fund to be placed with Mr. Hulke and Dr. Russell, for the benefit of applicants. Circular letter from a Defence Association to resist claims by the Lane-Fox Electrical Company referred to the solicitors Few & Company to ascertain possible liability of Messrs. Drake & Gorham. Letter from Sir Francis Knowles proposing that the Society should hold a sealed package on his behalf, refused according to standing policy. Professor R. Heidenhain unable to give the Croonian Lecture this year, the researches of Horsley and Gotch suggested, but deferred. Consideration of the Bakerian Lecture deferred. Request from the Eclipse Committee of the Royal Astronomical Society to copy from negatives of 1882 and 1883 eclipses approved. Use of rooms granted to the organising committee of the International Congress of Hygiene and Demography. Permission given to Mr. Warington to remove portait prints for copying. Mr Sherborn's application for a copy of the Library Catalogue declined. Permission granted to Professor Romanes to copy figures from Professor Ewart's paper in Philosophical Transactions. Application to Sir Henry Ponsonby for the Queen's permission to strike a bronze copy of the Royal Medal for the Society's collection. Salary of Alfred White, Assistant Librarian, increased by £10 to £170 per annum; Richard Chapman, Assistant in Office and Library to be increased from 24s. per week to £80 per annum. Bills for lithography, from Johnson Matthey for medals, from Allan Wyon for the Darwin Medal design and production, and for the Anniversary Dinner. |