174 



water ; that the equivalents of oxide are not all retained by 

 the same force, and that if we grant to ammonium the title 

 of a compound radical, it becomes very difficult to refuse to 

 the basic salts, as a class, the position or title of neutral salts 

 of compound bases, of a nature nearly similar. 



Mr. Petrie read a paper on " ancient Irish consecrated 

 Bells." 



In this paper the author has first endeavoured to ascer- 

 tain the period of the introduction of bells into Ireland, and 

 states, that though it is possible that they might have been 

 in use previously to the introduction of Christianity, he has 

 not found the smallest authority from which it could be 

 inferred that they were so. He next shews that there is 

 abundance of evidence to prove, that in and from St. Patrick's 

 time, they were generally used for the services of the church, 

 and that the consecrated bells of the first teachers of 

 Christianity in Ireland were afterwards applied to various 

 superstitious purposes, of which he gives a great number of 

 examples, from the lives of the Irish saints, ancient historical 

 poems, annals, and other records. These bells were pre- 

 served in the churches to which they had originally belonged, 

 and were usually enshrined in cases of the most costly 

 materials and elaborate workmanship. The author proves that 

 many of these bells of the earliest Christian times, though 

 hitherto unknown to the literary world, still remain in 

 Ireland ; and he exhibited from his own museum a bell, which 

 is celebrated in Irish history, as one of the chief relics of 

 the people of the north of Ireland, namely, the Clog- 

 an-udhachta, or bell of St. Patrick's will. He afterwards 

 exhibited drawings of several ancient bells, and among 

 others, of St. Senanus's bell, called the golden bell, preserved 

 in the county of Clare, and the bell of Armagh, now in the 

 possession of Adam M'Clean, Esq. of Belfast. This bell is 

 covered by a case, or shrine, of exquisite beauty of work- 



