| 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: William Grylls Adams; Thomas Clifford Allbutt; Robert Bellamy Clifton; William Turner Thiselton Dyer; James Alfred Ewing; Lazarus Fletcher; Michael Foster; Edward Frankland; William Holbrook Gaskell; Alfred George Greenhill; William Huggins; Charles Lapworth; Major Percy Alexander MacMahon; Raphael Meldola; William Ramsay; Arthur William Rucker; the Treasurer, Sir John Evans; Thomas de Grey, Lord Walsingham; Walter Frank Raphael Weldon; Admiral William James Lloyd Wharton; the President, Sir Joseph Lister, in the chair.
Among matters discussed or noted:
1. New members of Council subscribed to the decalration in lieu of the oath.
2. Minutes of the last meeting read and approved.
3. Appointment of Vice-Presidents.
4. Mathematical, Geological and Botanical Sectional Committees, not having met, and the Zoological Committe having met once, should continue dating from 1 January 1897.
5-6. Apointments of the Physics and Chemistry, and the Physiology Sectional Committees.
7. List of Sectional Committees: Mathematics, Physics and Chemistry, Geology, Botany, Zoology, Physiology.
8. Use of the term 'Vice-Chairman' in standing committees.
9-20. Appointment of Committees with lists of members: Library Committee, Soiree and House Committee, Catalogue of Scientific Papers Committee, Challenger Committee, Gunning Water Research Committee, Scientific Relief Committee, International Catalogue Committee, Joint Permanent Eclipse Committee, Coral Reef Committee, Delta Boring Committee, Tsetse Fly Committee, and the Measurement of Plants and Animals Committee.
21. President and Officers to be considered as ex officio members of committees, with exceptions; the term 'accessory members' to be use in cases of non-FRS committee service.
22. Seal of the Royal Society affixed to Foreign Member diplomas.
23. An informal reception to be held on 21 January 1897.
24. Report of the Joint Permanent Eclipse Committee, full text entered into the minutes: requesting thanks to be conveyed via the Admiralty and others for assistance with expeditions observing the eclipse of 9 August 1896.
25-26. Letter from R. H. Meade, Downing Street, 20 November 1896, to the Secretary of the Royal Society, full text entered into the minutes: forwarding telegraphic correspondence with the Governors of the Cape and of Natal. The Cape Government will not adopt the Society's proposals with regard to the Rinderpest enquiry, although the Natal Government proposed to allow £500 towards its expenses, although this might not be enough for an adequate enquiry. The Secretary drafted a reply to the Colonial Office, to be sent with amendments.
27. Letter from Sir William Flower, enclosing a letter from Dr. Forsyth Major: requesting that once selected specimens collected with the aid of the Government Grant Fund had been deposited with the British Museum (Natural History), he might distribute or sell the remainder, approved.
28. Report by Professor Marshall Ward to the Water Research Committee on the bacterial flora of the Thames referred to the Botany Sectional Committee.
29. £2,000 on account of the Government Grant and £500 on account of the Publication Fund had been deposited by the Paymaster-General with the Society's bankers.
30. Letters of thanks from medallists tabled.
31. Telegram of thanks from Professor Cannizzaro for the Society's congratulatory address.
32. Letter of thanks from the Treasury, for the list of institutions and individuals to whom surplus copies of Challenger reports might be given.
33. Letter of thanks from the Committee of the Huygens Exhhibition, for loans.
34. Letter from Professor J. J. Thomson on his attendence at the Princeton University celebrations.
35. Thanks of the Society to be sent to Dr. John Murray for the gift of a medal struck to commemorate the completion of the Challenger reports.
36. Bills from Johnson, Matthey & Company for medals and for other expenses.
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