| 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); William Dobinson Halliburton; William Abbott Herdman; Victor Horsley; Alfred Bray Kempe (Treasurer); Joseph Larmor; Nevil Storey 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. Minutes of the last meeting read and approved.
2. Death of Sir Frederick McCoy.
3. Report from the Executive Committee of the National Physical Laboratory, full text entered into the minutes: on the terms of employment of a Director for the Laboratory; the Junior Secretary authorised to lay before Council the names of suitable candidates. Lists of nominations for the General Board of the Laboratory, with notes on length of service and arrangements for retirements. Letter from the Chairman of the Kew Observatory Committee on staff transfers, referred to the Executive Committee.
4. Letter from the President of the Royal Geographical Society proposing wider appointmemts to the Joint Antarctic Committee; agreed, with lists of nominees and suggested additional powers, notably the ability to nominate sub-committees.
5. Letter from the Royal Astronomical Society on membership of the Joint Permanent Eclipse Committee, with a list appointed members; appointments confirmed, with both Society's Secretaries to write to the members on changes to committee regulations.
6. Letter from A. Godley, India Office, 28 March 1899, to the Secretary, the Royal Society, full text entered into the minutes: requesting that the Royal Society create a committee to advise the Government of India on scientific matters. A standing committee to be formed accordingly. Letter of reply from Michael Foster, no date, to the Under Secretary of State for India, noting this action.
7. Communication from Few & Company on the terms of a £12,000 advance from the Royal Society to the Duke of Norfolk on mortgaging freehold ground rents in Sheffield. On changes to terms in granting building leases, the Royal Society assents to the change in Norfolk's powers, on reassurance from F. Fowler of Sheffield.
8. Power of attorney to the Society's solicitors to receive a dividend on the termination of an annuity for the Stevenson Bequest.
9. Seal of the Royal Society affixed to the congratulatory address to Sir George Gabriel Stokes.
10. £500 from the Government Publication Grant, spread over three years, allocated to the Royal Society of Edinburgh for the publication of Ben Nevis Observations.
11. Grants of £25 and £10 from the Publication Fund made to the Cambridge Philosophical Society for the cost of illustrating papers by Mr. A. C. Seward and Mr. D. Sharp.
12. Report of the Government Grant Fund Committee, listing grants awarded by Boards A-G, with totals. On a grant of £1,000 recommended from the Reserve Fund for the Joint Antarctic Committee, no funds were available this year. £385, instead of the usual £500, placed as a Reserve Fund, West India Committee reappointed without a grant. Suggestion from Mr. Buchan on an additional Board for Bacteriological Researches dropped.
13. Report from Board F on the placing of specimens collected by Mr. Ogilvie Grant, approved.
14. Dr Larmor's suggestion that Boards might be amalgamated, referrred to the Government Grant Review Board.
15. Letter of resignation as Clerk to the Government Grant Committee, from Mr. Herbert Rix: Rix to remain in office until next Christmas with a sum of £10 for travelling expenses.
16. Assistant Secretary to be charged with adminstrative duties of the Government Grant Commitee, with an assistant and £50 for administrative expenses.
17. Salary of the Assistant Secretary to be increased from £300 to £400 from last Christmas.
18. Letter from the Royal Cornwall Polytechnic Society on magnetic observations at Falmouth Observatory referred to the Executive Committee of the National Physical Laboratory.
19. Proposal that the Assistant Secretary be present at Council to assist in taking minutes, voted upon and lost.
20. Report of the Scientific Relief Committee on grants to applicants, including to Mr. David Carrington.
21. £100 from the Reserve Fund allocated to Mr. Boulenger for collecting from the Senegal River, to complete his work on freshwater fauna of Africa.
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