| 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: George Albert Boulenger; John Rose Bradford; Hugh Longbourne Callendar; Francis Darwin (Foreign Secretary); Harold Bailey Dixon; Frank Watson Dyson; Percy Faraday Frankland; Sir Archibald Geikie (Secretary); Sir Robert Giffen; William Dobinson Halliburton; Ernest William Hobson; John Wesley Judd; Alfred Bray Kempe (Treasurer); Joseph Larmor (Secretary); George Downing Liveing; Augustus Edward Hough Love; Adam Sedgwick; William Napier Shaw; Captain Thomas Henry Tizard; 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 were read and signed as correct.
2. Deaths of Professor Everett, Sir William Harcourt, Dr. Isaac Roberts and Sir John Simon: Professor Perry, Sir Robert Ball and Sir J. Burdon Sanderson requested to write the Obituary Notices of Everett, Roberts and Simon.
3. Nomination of Fellows for election to Council and list of retiring members.
4. Adjudication of Royal Society medals, no new names submitted, decisions deferred.
5. Letter from Victor Cavendish, Treasury Chambers, 3 September 1904, to the President of the Royal Society, full text entered into the minutes: on the administration of the Meteorological Council and the Parliamentary Grant, including the Ben Nevis and Fort William Observatories; a committee formed to advise Council on the contents of the letter.
6. W.H. Dines, Professor Schuster and Sir John Eliot appointed to the Meteorological Council.
7. Letter from the Scottish Meteorological Society to the Meteorological Council reporting the closure of the Ben Nevis and Fort William Observatories tabled.
8. Treasurer's report on the return of the Discovery to England, the entertainment of officers and crew, and the securing of the scientific records and specimens.
9. The Finance Committee for the National Antarctic Committee had taken immediate steps to sell Discovery, berthed free of charge at the East India Dock: offered to the Admiralty at a reduced price and declined, the vessel was to be sold by a broker.
10. Committees in charge of the reduction of Meteorological and Magnetic Observations had met and made arrangements, full text of an extract of the minutes of the Meteorological Council entered into the minutes: varous resolutions adopted, including the publication of magnetic reductions by the Royal Society, £400 to be advanced from the Donation Fund, pending the sale of Discovery.
11. Draft letter of thanks to officers and crew of the National Antarctic Expedition approved and ordered to be sent to all participants.
12. Letter from Horace Walpole, India Office, Whitehall, 18 October 1904, to the Secretaries of the Royal Society, full text entered into the minutes: regarding a letter from the Lister Institute suggesting the need for research into plague, Mr. Broderick considers that the Government of India might welcome the proposal and requests that the Royal Society co-operates with the Lister Institute in forming an advisory committee; Professor Bradford and Sir Michael Foster nominated to represent the Royal Society.
13. Treasurer reported on the income of the Gunning Fund, the Physics and Chemistry Committee to make recommendations on its application.
14. Professor Marshall Ward nominated to represent the Royal Society at the International Congress on Botany at Vienna in 1905.
15. £500 advanced to the International Catalogue of Scientific Literature from the Society's cash balance, and the Treasurer authorised to sell £1,000 of stock to replace it.
16. Sir Michael Foster appointed as the Royal Socuety's representative on an Advisory Board for Tropical Diseases, at the request of the Colonial Office.
17. Dr. Glazebrook, Major MacMahon and Professor Perry nominated to represent the Royal Society at the Electrical Congress at St. Louis.
18. Letter from the Foreign Office giving news of Lord Lansdowne's discussions with Lord Cromer on the geodetic arc in Africa; there was difficulty in finding funding, but there was hope for the co-operation of the Egyptian Government.
19. Correspondence with the Imperial Academy of Sciences in Vienna on the International Committee on Solar Research.
20. Dr. W.N. Shaw nominated as a Government representative to the Fourth Congress of the International Scientific Commission on Aerostation in St. Petersburg.
21. Letter from the Foreign Office stating that no Government delegates were appointed to the International Geographic Congress in Washington.
22. Williamsd and Norgate had undertaken to publish Mr. Church's work on the relation of Phyllotaxis to mechanical laws as a book, in consideration of the £50 voted from the Publication Fund.
23. Letter from Mrs. Roberts wishing to present 24 glass positives of celestial objects taken by Dr. Isaac Roberts: Council would receive them, but would need to keep them in a secure place.
24. Treasurer reported the receipt of £2,000 from the Treasury for the National Physical Laboratory, £2,000 for the Government Grant for Scientific Investigations and £500 in aid of scientific publications.
25. Annual Report of the Meteorological Council tabled and ordered to be forwarded to the Treasury.
26. Leave granted to the Egyptian Exploration Fund to use the Society's rooms for a meeting on 11 November.
27. A plaque struck for the 200th anniversary of the Royal Academy of Sciences, Berlin, presented.
28. Draft Annual Report of Council to the Fellowship was tabled and directed to be circulated for comment.
29. Dates for Council Meetings 1904-5.
30. Leave granted to various applicants for copies of illustrations.
31. List of bills for payment for engraving, and for other services. |