| 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); Frank Watson Dyson; Harold Bailey Dixon; Percy Faraday Frankland; Sir Archibald Geikie (Secretary); 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. Professor Dixon moved a resolution congratulating Sir William Huggins on his eightieth birthday.
3. Secretaries reported the decease of the Reverend Dr. Salmon. A letter of condolence had been sent to Trinity College Dublin and nominations were made to attend.
4. Applications to the Treasury Publications Grant were considered: Mr. Annadale's application for 'Fasciculi Malayensis' was turned down, further consideration of applications from A.H. Church, Lieutenant-Colonel Cunningham and from the Geologists' Association were postponed.
5. Treasurer on Professor Herdman's report on the Ceylon Pearl Fisheries of Ceylon, the first four parts of which had taken up the entire £600 allocated for the publication and the rest of which might cost an additional £500: resolved that the Ceylon Government be asked for the promised £300 and to bear the remaining costs; with the Treasurer authorised to pay the residue of costs of the existing parts publication from the Publication Fund.
6. The £150 grant awarded for the publication of Mr. Fowler's Zoological Reports transferred from the Zoological Society to the Linnean Society, now the responsible publisher.
7. Memorandum from Sir Michael Foster with letters from Professor Mosso and Dr. Mond, on the attempt to found a lower laboratory at Col d'Olen to match the higher laboratory of the International Laboratory of Physiology at Monte Rosa: Dr. Mond was willing to give £400 of support if the Royal Society would have the duty of nominating to two posts there, accepted with thanks to Mond.
8. Letter from the Colonial Office with a despatch from the Governor of Malta, requesting that the Royal Society appoint a board to consider investigations into Mediterranean Fever: the Tropical Diseases Committee resolved that the Society should proceed, on condition that appointments were in the hands of the Royal Society and all expenses were to be met by Government.
9. Resoloution of the Tropical Disease Committee requesting £50 for investigations: this to be paid from the Government Grant residue fund allocated by Council, together with the current overdraft of that committee.
10. Tropical Diseases Committee recommendation that the Royal Society should bring to the attention of Government the need for provision in the UK for investigations into Trypanosoma and similar parasites, in support existing work on Sleeping Sickness and Malaria, approved and referred to a special committee.
11. Letter from the Clarendon Press Oxford, stating the impossibility of publishing the Oxford part of the International Astrographic Chart; further consideration deferred.
12. Sir Archibald Geikie moved a proposition on behalf of the International Geological Congress, for the establishment of worldwide seismological stations, determinations of levels of moutain chains subject to earthquakes, and measurements of the value of gravity, approved to be presented to the General Assembly of the International Association.
13. Letter from the Meteorological Society requesting that Council approach the Admiralty for the loan of a vessel for carrying out observations using kites.
14. Report of the Finance Committee of the National Antarctic Expedition, with full text of letters from J.S. Keltie, Royal Geographical Society; William Huggins and Clements R. Markham; and Joseph Larmor and Archibald Geikie; on joint Royal Society and Royal Geographical Society letters to Captain Scott and to the Admiralty.
15. Draft memorandum on the future organisation of the National Physical Laboratory, to be forwarded to the Treasury after minor amendments.
16. Professor Ernest Rutherford of Montreal appointed the Bakerian Lecturer.
17. Letter from the Secretary of the Meteorological Council stating the conditons under which the Council would assist in the reduction of the Antarctic Meteorological Observations, a reply to be considered at the next meeting.
18. Letter requesting Council to admit to the list of candidates those names not notified for resuspension; voted on and rejected.
19. £500 advanced to the International Catalogue of Scientific Literature not limited to three months only.
20. The President noted a 70th birthday congratulatory address to Dr. Mendeleev, and his reply.
21. Legacy of £100 from the Executors of Dr. Thin.
22. Date of the Croonian Lecture to be 24 March.
23. Government Grant Committee to meet on 18 May with Grant Boards on 27 April.
24. Letter from Evan MacGregor, Admiralty, 5 February 1904, to Lieutenant W. Colbeck, SS Morning, Antarctic Relief Expedition, full text entered into the minutes: commanding Colbeck to retrieve articles from the Discovery, in the event that the vessel was abandoned.
25. Letter from the Colonial Secretary of Bermuda, forwarding the Governor's communication to the House of Assembly, on the uncertainty of taking action on the proposed Marine Biological Station in that session.
26. Application from Professor Dewar for copies of Philosophical Transactions, granted.
27. Leave granted to Mr. W.C.D. Whetham for reproduction of illustrations.
28. List of bills for printing, publication and engraving.
29. Selection of candidates for admission to the Fellowship considered and adjourned.
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