| 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: William Bateson; William Thomas Blanford; Hugh Longbourne Callendar; Francis Darwin; Harold Bailey Dixon; Michael Foster (Secretary); George Carey Foster; John Wesley Judd; Alfred Bray Kempe (Treasurer); Joseph Larmor (Secretary); Lord Lister; George Downing Liveing; Augustus Edward Hough Love; Henry Alexander Miers; Edward Albert Schafer; Thomas Edward Thorpe (Foreign Secretary); Thomas Henry Tizard; Herbert Hall Turner; Sir John Wolfe Barry; the President, Sir William Huggins, in the chair. The Assistant Secretary [Robert Harrison] attended.
Among matters discussed or noted:
1. Minutes of the previous meeting read and approved.
2. Report of the Government Grant Committee, listing grants allocated by Boards A-G with totals. £138 balance from Malaria and Volcanoes Committees to be devoted to the investigation of Sleeping Sickness. £500 to be placed with Council as the Reserve Fund, with a £30 unallocated balance. Amendments to Government Grant regulations.
3. No statement of account from Dr. G. T. Moody on the £50 granted to him; the Treasurer to write to him.
4. Seal of the Royal Society affixed to letter sof introduction to aid in the expedition to British New Guinea.
5. Letter from E. W. D. Ward, War Office, 9 May, to Sir Michael Foster, Secretary of the Royal Society, full text entered into the minutes: seeking the Royal Society's assistance in reviewing evidence on Dr. Wright's anti-typhoid inoculation, the use of which had been suspended in the Army. Compulsory inoculation against typhoid in the Services would only be considered if there were proof of its safety and effectiveness. Referred to the Malaria and Tsetse Fly Committee, which recommended that the Army seek advice from the Royal College of Physicians.
6. Letter from R. L. Antrobus, Downing Street, 23 May 1903, to the Secretary of the Malaria Committee, full text entered into the minutes: on a despatch received from the Governor of Sierra Leone on work by Dr. Logan Taylor of the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, to exterminate mosquitoes in Freetown. Referred to the Malaria and Tsetse Fly Committee who recommend the appointment of an independent commission.
7. President reported on despatches received from the ship 'Discovery' indicating that it was almost certain that the vessel would overwinter. Letter from the Presidents of the Royal and Royal Geographical Society, 19 May 1903, to the First Lord of the Treasury, full text entered into the minutes: summarising the work of the National Antarctic Expedition and requesting funding for the continued supply of the party. A letter to be addressed to Mr. Balfour seeking an interview about a complaint against the Royal Society suggested in an exchange in the House of Commons.
8. Letter from Professor Herdman, requesting that the Royal Society publish his report on the Pearl Fisheries of Ceylon; the Government of Ceylon to pay £300 towards its costs. Agreed, with any additional funding to be drawn from the Publication Grant.
9. Applications from Dr. A. Gamgee for £50 and from Mr. W. B. Hardy for £30, from the Donation Fund, granted.
10. Application from Mr. W. H. L. Duckworth for £50 to investigate modern inhabitants in Greece and human skeletons lately found at Palaeokastro, to be made from the Reserve Fund, with the approval of the Chairman of Government Grant Board F.
11. Application on behalf of Mr. Annendale for £200 from the Publication Grant Fund for a publication on 'Fasciculi Malayenses', deferred until July Council.
12. Lord Lister to be appointed as the Society's representative on the governing body of the University of Liverpool.
13. Letters from the Colonial Office indicating that staff of the Perth Observatory would remained undiminished during this finsncial year and notification would be made of any changes thereafter.
14. Application from Sir David Gill that the Society obtain on loan from the Russian Government the geodetic standards required for the Zambesi-Tanganyika arc expedition under Dr. Rubin; the British South African Company would indemnify the Society against any loss. A letter to Lieutenant-General N. D. Artamanoff to be sent accordingly.
15. Professor Judd to represent the Royal Society at the unveiling of a statue to August Kekele.
16. Fee of £25 to be tendered to Messrs. Keen & Company for the preparation of the Society's annual accounts and balance sheets.
17. Letter from Francis Mowatt, Treasury Chambers, 21 May 1903, to the President of the Royal Society, full text entered into the minutes: on the alteration of the rule in the organisation of the National Physical Laboratory on retirement of members. The Treasury thinks that the principle of original rule is a good one and that exceptions should only be made for special reasons.
18. The suggestion that Fellows should wear academic or levee dress at the Ladies' Soiree, Sir John Wolfe Barry's motion not seconded.
19. Letter from Mr. C. Kinloch Cooke requesting the use of the Society's meeting room for a Conference of Allied Colonial Universities, agreed.
20. Fellows' 'at home' arranged on 3 June to coincide with the meeting of the Council of the International Association of Academies.
21. £120 to be placed with Sir Michael Foster for the benefit of an applicant to the Scientific Relief Fund.
22. Reports of the Committee to consider the functions of Sectional Committees, and of the Committee upon the Improvement of Scientific Education, full text of each entered into the minutes: further consideration deferred until June Council.
23. Notice from the Senior Secretary on draft Statutes regarding the timing of Fellowship elections.
24. Omission of certain meetings for the coming year.
25. Report and accounts of the National Physical Laboratory received and copies ordered to be sent to H. M. Treasury.
26. Treasurer reported the receipt of £2,000 for the Government Grant.
27. Letter from the Foreign Office providing a date for the Constituent Assembly of the International Investigation of Earthquakes.
28. A bas-relief and medal of Sir Joseph Prestwich was presented by Sir John Evans.
29. Photographs of the late Sir George Gabriel Stokes presented by Mrs. Myers and a photograph from a painting by Jean Senebier presented by Professor Timirjazev.
30. Thanks to be sent to the Editors of the British Medical Journal and The Lancet for copies of their journals offered to the Society.
31. Leave granted for the copying of illustrations.
32. Bills for engraving. |