304 Anniversary Meeting. 



acclamation. The Conference finding itself unable to accept any of 

 the systems of classification proposed, requested the Royal Society to 

 form a committee which shonld consider this and other matters which 

 were left undecided by the Conference. The Council are already 

 taking steps to perform the duties thus entrusted to them by the 

 Conference. 



The delegates of the Society reported that the whole proceedings 

 of the Conference were carried on with remarkable good feeling, 

 and even unanimity, and that the confidence felt and expressed by the 

 various delegates in the fitness of the Royal Society to complete the 

 work begun by the Conference was most gratifying. 



In connection with the fact that the proposed International Cata- 

 logue is to be in part arranged according to subject matter, it may be 

 stated that the Council, acting upon a resolution of the International 

 Catalogue Committee, have taken steps towards the practice of append, 

 ing subject indices to the papers published by the Society, and have 

 recommended th'e same practice to other Societies. 



The work connected with the Society's own Catalogue is progressing. 

 Vol. XI, the last of the decade 1874-83, has been published, and the 

 preparation of the Supplement, which has been found necessary for 

 this and preceding decades, is being pushed on. 



For the Subject Index to the Catalogue, slips have been prepared, 

 and the Catalogue Committee will soon have to advise the Council 

 as to the system of classification to be adopted. . 



The Grant of 1000 in aid of publications, which My Lords of the 

 Treasury promised last summer to place upon the Estimates of this 

 year, has been sanctioned by Parliament, and a moiety of it has 

 already been paid to the Society. The Council have already felt the 

 great advantage of having this money at their disposal, and have 

 framed Regulations for its administration which they trust will be 

 found to work satisfactorily. 



The Council have made some small changes (which have been 

 approved by My Lords of the Treasury) in the Regulations for the 

 administration of the Government Grant of 4000 in aid of Scientific 

 Inquiries, directed chiefly towards more effectually securing that 

 Grants made should be expended for the purpose for which they were 

 given, and that objects of permanent interest obtained by Grants 

 should be properly disposed of. The only two Grants made this 

 year which call for special mention are that of 1000 to the Joint 

 Permanent Eclipse Committee of the Royal and Royal Astronomical 

 Societies, for observations of the Solar Eclipse of August, and that 

 of 800 for boring a coral reef in the Pacific Ocean, administered by 

 the Committee appointed by the Royal Society, both drawn from the 

 Reserve Fund. 



The Expedition to bore the Coral Reef received valuable assistance 





