| 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 Edward Ayrton; William Henry Mahoney Christie; Michael Foster; Archibald Geikie; James Whitbread Lee Glaisher; Hugo Muller; Alfred Newton; John William Strutt, Lord Rayleigh; William Chandler Roberts-Austen; Edward Albert Schafer; Sir George Gabriel Stokes; General Richard Strachey; Joseph John Thomson; The Treasurer, Sir John Evans; 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. Deaths of Edmond Becquerel and Carl Wilhelm von Nageli. Report of the Government Grant Committee, with lists of grants awarded by Boards A-G, with £500 to be reserved for the disposal of Council and copies of the report to be circulated to each member of the Committee. Report of the Statutes Committee, the resolution to increase the number of Fellows elected each year rescinded; further consideration to be given at the 18 June meeting. Report of the Catalogue Committee. Letter from Michael Foster to Michael Carteighe, the Pharmaceutical Society, 26 May 1891, entered into the minutes; offering congratulations on the Socety's jubilee. Letter from Wilton and Sons, solicitors, on a codicil to the will of Thomas Kerslake of Clevedon, presenting an armchair 'reputed to have belonged to Sir Isaac Newton', to the Royal Society, accepted. Letter from H. De La Hooke, London County Council, to the Secretary, Royal Society, 1 May 1891, entered into the minutes; asking if the Society would be willing to investigate microscopic pathogens in water supply; Secretary to reply that the Society could do so, if funds were available from the County Council. Letter from Robert H. Scott, Meteorological Office, to Michael Foster, 12 May 1891, entered into the minutes; J. Allan Broun's Trevandrum observations forwarded to India, W. Ellis of Greenwich Observatory has inspected and reported on the residual manuscripts. Letter from the Cardiff Naturalists' Society asking for signatures on a petition in favour of Mr. Pease's Bill on wild bird protection; Council unable to authorise this. President and Officers to join a deputation to the President of the Board of Trade on the proposed British Institute of Preventative Medicine. Letter from Sir Frederick Abel, noting that the President has power to appoint to the governing body of the Imperial Institute in his place; Professor Ayrton appointed. £100 from the Donation Fund to Dr. Forsyth-Major to research Miocene fossil mammals of the island of Samos. £50 from the Donation Fund granted to Professor Haddon for ethnographical researches in the Torres Straits. Letter on the inauguration of a Czech Academy of Science. Committee appointed to consider the best method of spending the Joule Fund. Consideration of Dr. Armstrong's communication on statutes postponed. Lists of names proposed for award of Royal Society medals. Leave granted for copies of papers and electrotypes of illustrations. Bill for engraving and lithography. |