| Description | Printed minutes containing matters laid before Council, the Royal Society's governing body of Fellows, with records of decisions taken. Individual minutes are numbered.
Commencing with a list of Council members present: Thomas George Bonney; Captain Ettrick William Creak; James Dewar; Michael Foster (Secretary); Sir Edward Frankland (Foreign Secretary); William Dobinson Halliburton; William Abbott Herdman; Alfred Bray Kempe (Treasurer); Joseph Larmor; Nevil Story Maskelyne; Sir Andrew Noble; Edward Bagnell Poulton; Arthur William Rucker (Secretary); William James Russell; Arthur Schuster; Dukinfield Henry Scott; George Johnstone Stoney; Joseph John Thomson; the President, Lord Lister, in the chair.
Among matters discussed or noted:
1. New members of Council subscribed to the declaration in lieu of the oath
2. Minutes of the last meeting read and approved.
3. Deaths of Professor George James Allman and Edwin Dunkin.
4. Appointment of Vice-Presidents.
5. Report of the Chelsea Physic Garden Committee, proposing modifications to the draft scheme proposed by the Charity Commissioners, adopted with one omission.
6. Report of the Joint Permanent Eclipse Committee, noting good observations from India of the 1898 eclipse; constitution referred to a committee created for the purpose.
7. Letter from Francis Mowatt, Treasury Chambers, 7 December 1898, to the President of the Royal Society, full text entered into the minutes: on arrangments for the proposed National Physical Laboratory.
8-29. Appointment of committees for the year: Library Committee; Soiree Committee; House Committee; Catalogue of Scientific Papers Committee; Challenger Committee; Gunning Fund Committee; Scientific Relief Committee; International Catalogue Committee; Joint Permanent Eclipse Committee; Coral Relief Committee; Delta Boring Committee; Tsetse Fly Committee; Evolution Committee; Government Grant Review Committee; Observatories Committee; Chelsea Gardens Committee; Antarctic Committee; International Floating Observatories Committee; Malaria Committee; National Physical Laboratory Committee; Finance Committee.
30. Appointment of Sectional Committees: Mathematics, Physics and Chemistry, Geology, Botany, Zoology and Physiology.
31. Lists of Government Grant Committee Boards A-G, with Chairs and appointments.
32. £10 from the Donation Fund voted to address the neglected condition of Sir Humphry Davy's tomb in Geneva.
33. Senior Secretary unable to visit St. Petersburg as planned. Mr. A. Shipley of the University of Cambridge commended to represent the Society's views to the Imperial Academy of Sciences and the Imperial Military Academy of Medicine.
34. Letter from Dr. G. H. Fowler requesting Admiralty support for research into deep-water zones, referred to the Floating Observatories Committee.
35. Letter from the Clerk to the Government Grant Committee reporting on two albums of cloud photographs sent with Charles Piazzi Smyth's returned apparatus; these to be placed in the Library.
36. Professor Burdon Sanderson to be invited to deliver the Croonian Lecture.
37. An informal reception of Fellows to be held on 19 January 1899.
38. Presentation of a bound volume of Kent's Cavern Reports by Sir John Evans.
39. Thanks to John Evans for the designs prepared for the Sylvester Medal.
40. Treasurer's report on Inland Revenue advice in payment of legacies under the will of Sir William Mackinnon.
41. £66 from the Publication Fund voted for two papers to be printed in Philosophical Transactions.
42. Salary increases for three members of Royal Society staff.
43. Leave granted for copying illustrations.
44. Bills from Johnson Matthey & Company for medals, the Edison-Bell Company for phonoograph and cylinders, and for other expenses.
|