Attended by

during the
Meeting

Grants for Scien

tific Purposes

Including Ladies.

Fellows of the American Association were admitted as Hon. Members for this Meeting.

REPORT OF THE COUNCIL.

Report of the Council for the Year 1893-94, presented to the General Committee at Oxford on Wednesday, August 8, 1894.

THE Council have received reports from the General Treasurer during the past year, and his account from July 1, 1893 to June 30, 1894, which has been audited, will be presented to the General Committee.

As the amount of money voted for grants has been subject to considerable fluctuations, and as the expenditure on printing is apt to increase unless carefully watched, the Council appointed a Committee to report on the desirability of equalising the grants made for scientific purposes in different years, and of making, if possible, still further reductions in the expenditure on printing.

The Council received and adopted the following Report from their Committee.

(1) That it is not desirable that the Invested Funds of the Association be increased, and that the floating balance in the hands of the Treasurer might be diminished if the bill for printing, which is now due, were paid out of Capital. The Committee therefore recommend that a sufficient sum be taken out of Capital to allow this to be done.

(2) That the Treasurer be requested to continue the practice, which he began at Nottingham, of presenting to the Committee of Recommendations, at their second meeting, an estimate of the receipts and expenses of the Association for the current financial year.

(3) That it is not advisable to lay down any definite rules as to the amount to be expended in grants, but that as far as circumstances permit the following regulations should be adhered to:

(a) That 1,000l. be at present regarded as the normal annual grant in aid of research.

(B) That this sum be annually granted, unless the estimated floating balance in the hands of the Treasurer at the end of the current financial year is less than 500l. or greater than 1,000l.

(7) If the estimated balance falls short of 5007, it is desirable that the grant should be reduced. If it exceeds 1,000l., the excess may be regarded as available for increasing the grant above 1,000l.

(8) In the case of a sudden increase of the floating balance above 1,0007., due to an exceptionally large meeting, it is not desirable that the whole of the surplus should be spent at one meeting.

(4) That in view of the large annual expenditure on printing, the Committee recommend that the attention of Committees to whom grants of money are made be drawn to the importance of economy. Good service would be rendered to the Association if members of Committees would remember that they are severally responsible for the reports, and would do their best to make them as short and inexpensive as is consistent with their utility.

In accordance with the recommendation that the printer's bill then due should be paid out of Capital, the Council authorised the Trustees to sell an amount of stock sufficient for this purpose.

An invitation to hold the Annual Meeting of the Association at Liverpool in 1896 has been received, and will be brought before the General Committee on Monday; communications in reference to the Meeting of the Association in 1897 have been received from Toronto.

The Council recommend that the Mayor of Oxford, Sir W. R. Anson, Warden of All Souls' College, and Professor Sylvester be elected VicePresidents of the Association.

The Council having been informed that Mr. L. A. Selby-Bigge, one of the Local Secretaries, was obliged to resign his office, owing to his having accepted the appointment of Assistant Charity Commissioner, Mr. D. H. Nagel was nominated Secretary in his place.

The Council have elected the following Foreign Men of Science Corresponding Members :

Prof. Christian Bohr, Copenhagen.

Prof. W. C. Brögger, Christiania.
Prof. W Einthoven, Leiden.

Prof. Heger, Brussels.

Dr. R. Hertwig, Munich.
Dr. Hildebrand, Stockholm.
M, Henri Moissan, Paris.

Resolutions referred to the Council for consideration and action if desirable :

(1) That the recommendations regarding the times at which the Sections and Sectional Committees shall meet, which have been received from the Sectional Committees, be referred to the Council.

The Council, having regard to the fact that the enforcement of the same hour of meeting for all Sections would be contrary to the expressed wish of some of the Sections, resolved that the times of meeting of the Sections and Committees be arranged by the several Organising Committees, and be communicated to the General Officers at least one month before the Annual Meeting; and that the times so fixed be regularly adhered to throughout the Meeting on every day except Thursday and Saturday, in respect of which days the hours may be settled, as at present, by the Sectional Committees. If no such resolution be received from an Organising Committee, the times of meeting will be arranged as follows:Section at 11 A.M., Committee at 10 A.M.

(2) That the resolution received from the Committees of Sections C and G, proposing a change in the rule relating to the appointment of Committees for special objects of science, be referred to the Council.

The Council, having considered the question, do not recommend any change in this rule.

In consequence of the establishment of a separate Section of Physiology, Animal and Vegetable, it seemed likely that papers on botanical subjects might be divided between this Section and that of Biology. The Council received a communication from a meeting of Botanists, held last November, pointing out the inconvenience that was likely to arise from such a division; and they were asked to appoint a Committee to confer with a Committee of Botanists, who would represent the views of the meeting. The Council, after receiving their Committee's Report, resolved to recommend to the General Committee that, instead of Section D and Section I as at present constituted, there be three Sections, namely Section D, Zoology; Section I, Physiology; and Section K, Botany

The Council also propose that the word 'Mineralogy' be omitted from the title of Section B, as papers on Mineralogy are read not only

in this Section but also in the Physical Section and in the Geological Section.

By a rule of the Association, proposals for a change in the titles of Sections must be referred to the Committee of Recommendations for a report. This Committee will be able to consider any representations which may be made to them by the Committees of the Sections which would be affected by the proposed changes.

The Report of the Corresponding Societies Committee for the past year has been received and will be presented to the General Committee.

It is proposed in future to print the account of the Conference of Delegates in the Annual Report of the same year instead of in that of the following year. The Report of the Oxford Meeting will therefore contain an account of the proceedings of the Conference both at Nottingham and at Oxford.

The Corresponding Societies Committee, consisting of Mr. Francis Galton, Professor R. Meldola, Sir Douglas Galton, Sir Rawson Rawson, Dr. J. G. Garson, Sir J. Evans, Mr. J. Hopkinson, Mr. W. Whitaker, Mr. G. J. Symons, Mr. W. Topley, Professor T. G. Bonney, Mr. T. V. Holmes, Professor E. B. Poulton, Mr. Cuthbert Peek, and the Rev. Canon Tristram, is hereby nominated for reappointment by the General Committee.

The Council nominate Professor Meldola, F.R.S., Chairman, Mr. Cuthbert E. Peek, Vice-Chairman, and Mr. T. V. Holmes, Secretary, to the Conference of Delegates of Corresponding Societies to be held during the Meeting at Oxford.

In accordance with the regulations, the retiring Members of the Council will be :

Sir R. S. Ball.

R. T. Glazebrook, Esq.

Prof. A. H. Green.

Prof. H. Sidgwick.
Dr. H. Woodward.

The Council recommend the re-election of the other Ordinary Members of the Council, with the addition of the gentlemen whose names are distinguished by an asterisk in the following list :

COMMITTEES APPOINTED BY THE GENERAL COMMITTEE AT THE OXFORD MEETING IN AUGUST 1894.

1. Receiving Grants of Money.

Grants