| 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 Crookes; Sir Joseph Fayrer; Lazarus Fletcher; Michael Foster; Edward Frankland; Walter Holbrook Gaskell; William Huggins; William Thomson, Lord Kelvin; Alexander Blackie William Kennedy; Edwin Ray Lankester; Charles Lapworth; Major Percy Alexander MacMahon; John Henry Poynting; Arthur William Rucker; Osbert Salvin; the Treasurer, Sir John Evans; Harry Marshall Ward; Admiral William James Lloyd Wharton; the President, Sir Joseph Lister, in the chair.
Among matters discussed or noted: minutes of the last meeting read and approved. Professor Perry appointed to the Kew Committee to replace General Walker, deceased. Report of the Kew Committee ordered to be printed in Proceedings. Letter from Francis Mowatt, Treasury Chambers, 11 April 1896, to the Secretary of the Royal Society, full text entered into the minutes; approving changes to the regulations for administering the Government Grant. Letter from the Science and Art Department asking that soiree exhibitors are informed of willingness to show the exhibits at South Kensington, Council noting that any instructions from the Department would be placed with exhibitors. Letter from Sir William Flower confirming that Mr. Scott-Elliott's collections had been disposed of. List of members of the Joint Permanent Eclipse Committee members appointed by the Royal Astronomical Society, approved. Draft of a letter from the President to Professor Stanislao Cannizzaro on the occasion of his 70th birthday, full text entered into the minutes. Letter from the India Office announcing the dispatch of copies of volume 5 of the Trevandrum Observatory meteorological observations, for distribution. Report of the Government Grant Committee, with lists of grants awarded by Boards A-G and from the reserve fund, with totals: agreed that £500 should be placed with Council as a reserve fund. Report of the Chairman of Board F that Mr. Bles had requested that the balance of a grant made for investigating marine floating flora should be repurposed for research on the development of amphibia; Professor Lankester's objection, despite the committtee's approval. Professor Newton's motion on the re-appointment of the West India Committee and the Sandwich Islands Committee without grants, approved. Chairman of Board F recommending that legal advice be taken on reclaiming materials collected by W. H. Caldwell, the Society's solicitor to write to Mr. Caldwell on the subject. No action to be taken on Board D's recommendation regarding Mr. Eldridge Green. Letter from Dr. G. H. Fowler soliciting the Society's help in gaining Admiralty assistance for research on mid-water low temperature zones off the Orkney Islands, the Secretary to write to the Admiralty. Note on the £1,000 security required from the Assistant Secretary. Appointment of Miss Christina Barnard as an assistant in the Index Department of the Catalogue of Scientific Papers at £70 per annum; note on the holiday allowance for staff within the Department. Standing Order 45 and draft standing orders relating to the Committee of Papers considered and adopted, the latter entered as full text into the minutes. Appointment of four new Foreign Members deferred. Draft of a letter from the Secretaries to the Fellows, amended. Letter on the proposed Mining and Geological Millenial Congress in Budapest ordered to be placed on the noticeboard. Leave granted for electrotype copies of illustrations. Bills for lithography and engraving. |