| 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: Henry Edward Armstrong; William Bateson; William Thomas Blanford; Frederick Orpen Bower; Charles Vernon Boys; William Burnside; William Watson Cheyne; George Carey Foster; Sir Michael Foster (Secretary); Sir John Eldon Gorst; William Mitchinson Hicks; Alfred Bray Kempe (Treasurer); Joseph Larmor (Secretary); Henry Alexander Miers; Robert Henry Scott; Charles Scott Sherrington; Joseph Wilson Swan; Herbert Hall Turner; the President, Sir William Huggins, in the chair.
Among matters discussed or noted:
1. Minutes of the last meeting read and approved.
2. Report of the Government Grant Committee, listing grants allocated by Boards A-G and the reserve fund, with totals. A sum of £300 from the reserve fund to be placed with hthe Treasurer towards the expense of an expedition to the West Indies [Caribbean] to investigate recent volcanic activity. £500 to be placed in the reserve fund for Council. Recommendation from Board A that Biometrics should be added to subjects considered by one of the boards, not approved.
3. President to sign a memorial to the First Lord of the Treasury, seekign a civil list pension for the widow of the late Sir J. Henry Gilbert.
4. The Senior Secretary reported on a letter from the Colonial Office, suggesting an investigation of recent volcanic activity in the West Indies [Caribbean]. A committee nominated to organise an expedition: Mr. Tempest Anderson and John S. Flett proceeding to the West Indies [Caribbean], had left on 28 May. £300 from the Government Grant reserve fund allocated for the expedition expenses, with Tempest Anderson travelling on his own charges.
5. Letter from the Royal Geographical Society calling for a joint conference to consider the financial position of the National Antarctic Expedition and what instructions should be sent via the relief ship.
6. £200 honorarium awarded to Mr. George Murray for his work as Science Director on the National Antarctic Expedition.
7. Letter from C. E. Fagan, British Museum (Natural History), 22 May 1902, to the Secretary, National Antarctic Expedition, full text entered into the minutes: British Museum indicates willingness to publish the results of the National Antarctic Expedition, provided specimens, notes and drawings are sent to be preserved as part of the national collections, conditions accepted by Council.
8. Dr. G. C. Low, Dr. C. Christy and Dr. A. Castellani appointed by the Malaria Committee to proceed to Uganda to invesigate sleeping sickness, with £600 for expenses voted by Government Grant Committee Board G from the reserve fund.
9. £150 from the Mackinnon Fund allocated for the son of the late Sir William Mackinnon, on the understanding that no further donations would be made: no steps for increasing the number or value of studentships would be made until 1903.
10. Letter from Mr. J. H. M. Furse requesting that he be able to sell enlarged copies of his design for the reverse of the Hughes Medal in an exhibition in London, approved, securing the copyright of the Society in the design..
11. The honorarium to be paid to the late George Griffith, Editor of the Catalogue of Scientific Papers, to be paid to his widow.
12. The Royal Society to pay half the sum due for the first yearly issue of the International Catalogue.
13. Letter of J. G. S. Morrice, Hungerford Park, 20 May 1902, to the President of the Royal Society, full text entered into the minutes: requesting a form to execute in his will, leaving his estate to the Royal Society, inspired by the work of T. H. Huxley. With provision for the income to be allocated to his siblings during their lifetime. The Treasurer to enquire if any other conditions would apply.
14. Resolved that the National Physical Laboratory should be presented with runs of Royal Society publications from stock.
15. Letter from A. W. Fitzroy, Privy Council Office, 9 May 1902, to the Secretary, Royal Society, full text entered into the minutes: forwarding a communication from Charles Waldstein on the founding of the British Academy. Resolved that the Society does not consider it desirable to organise one institution of which the Royal Society would be part.
16. Action on amended statutes relating to privileged membership deferred until next Council.
17. Letter from Lord Esher, 5 May 1902, to the Secretary, Royal Society, full text entered into the minutes: acknowledging thanks for work on Bushy House for the National Physical Laboratory.
18. Treasurer reported the receipt from the Treasury of £2,000 for the Government Grant Fund and £500 for the Publication Grant.
19. Professor E. B. Elliott unable to attend the centenary commemoration of Niles Henrik Abel, four other delegates proposed to join Professor Forsyth.
20. Leave granted to reproduce illustrations.
21. Permission granted to the Royal Agricultural Society to photograph the portrait of Sir Humphry Davy.
22. Bills for engraving and books.
23. Agreed that Council should meet at 11a.m. on 19 June, with Professor Armstrong's letter as first item of business.
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