| 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: Dr. Henry Frederick Baker; Arthur James Balfour; John Rose Bradford (Foreign Secretary); Sir William Crookes; Francis Darwin; Sir George Darwin; James Cossar Ewart; David Ferrier; Sir Archibald Geikie (Secretary); Charles Thomas Heycock; Sydney John Hickson; John Joly; Alfred Bray Kempe (Treasurer); Joseph Larmor (Secretary); Dr. Alexander Scott; Albert Charles Seward; Frederick Thomas Trouton; Augustus Desire Waller; William Whitaker; the President, John William Strutt, 3rd Baron Rayleigh, in the chair. The Assistant Secretary [Robert Harrison] attended.
Among matters discussed or noted:
The Rt.Hon. A.J. Balfour subscribed to the Declaration in lieu of the oath as a new member of Council.
1. Minutes of the previous meeting were read and signed as correct.
2. Deaths of Sir J.D. Macdonald, Professor J.B. Pettigrew, Mr. W.A. Shenstone, and Sir Richard Strachey: Sir James Crichton Browne, Professor Tilden and Sir George Darwin requested to write Obituary Notices.
3. Treasurer reported that a central testing office had been established on land belonging to the Receiver of the Metropolitan Police for the testing of taximeters by the National Physical Laboratory: the seal of the Royal Society was affixed to a form of lease agreement.
4. A grant not exceeding £25 was voted for the erection of a tablet in Westminster Abbey, to the memory of Sir Leopold McClintock, appended to the Sir John Franklin memorial.
5. Report of the Sectional Committees for Botany, Physiology, and Zoology, recommending that Professor Gustav Retzius of Stockholm should give the Croonian Lecture, approved.
6. Proposal from the Director of the Meteorological Office to form a joint committee with the Royal Society and the Colonial Office, to consider the initiation and supervision of meteorological stations throughout the world: the Royal Society to inform him of its willingness to take part.
7. Letter from the Royal Society of Canada, inviting delegates to a meeting of Imperial and Colonial Meteorologists at Ottawa next May: Council agree if this is on a suitably representative basis, empowering the Officers to nominate.
8. Dates for meetings of the Government Grant Committee and Boards.
9. Professor Seward moved that Fellows submitting a paper for publication should sign a declaration that it had been read by him: an amendment by Joseph Larmor suggesting that a notice be printed on the cover of each Proceedings extracted from Statute VI Chapter XII, voted on and carried.
10. Letter from J.E. Petavel requesting the republication of a paper by him and Dr. Hutton in the Chemical Trades Journal: the Secretaries to express surprise at the request, since the paper had been republished as a seperate memoir from Philosophical Transactions very recently. Further consideration of requests for future publication of papers from the National Physical Laboratory deferred.
11. Upon the request of the Colonial Office and the attendance and explanation of Sir David Gill, £350 authorised to be paid in support of measurement of the Great African Geodetic Arc.
12. Applications for Publication Grants deferred to the next meeting.
13. Selection of candidates for election to the Fellowship considered and adjourned.
14. Selection of candidates for election under Statute XIII Chapter 1 was discussed and adjourned.
15. Report of the Solar Research Committee responding with advice on the establishment of a station for solar photography in Australia: the committee considered that this was desirable, or that an existing observatory might be staffed for the purpose so long as there was no impact on their existing work, suggesting the Observatory and University of Adelaide.
16. Report of the Eros Observations Committee, noting the work of Mr. Hinks and recommending support for him via a Government Grant application for £75 by Sir Robert Ball: a later grant of £100 would complete the work; report approved.
17. Report of the Scientific Relief Committee, recommending sums to be paid to applicants, approved.
18. Professor Carey reappointed to represent the Royal Society on the Governing Body of Dulwich College.
19. Letter from G.H. Murray, Treasury Chambers, 5 February 1908, to the Secretaries of the Royal Society, full text entered into the minutes: approval of an additional £1,000 to the annual grant in aid of the National Physical Laboratory.
20. Treasurer reported that £5,660 of Madras Railway stock would be converted into a sinking fund.
21. Leave granted to republish papers and to reproduce illustrations.
22. List of bills for payment for books, paper. electric lighting and for other expenses.
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