PROCEEDINGS 



OF 



THE ROYAL IRISH ACADEMY. 



1840. No. 23. 



May 11. 



SIR Wm.R. HAMILTON, LL.D., President, in the Chair. 



John Davidson, Esq., James Henry Blake, Esq., Q.C., 

 and Abraham Abell, Esq., were elected Members of the 

 Academy, 



A paper was read by Jonathan Osborne, M.D., on Aris- 

 totle's History of Animals : 



Dr. Osborne commenced by observing, that this work 

 was composed under circumstances more favourable to the 

 acquisition of natural Knowledge than any work on the sub- 

 ject ever published. According to Pliny, some thousands of 

 men were placed at the disposal of the author, throughout 

 Greece and Asia, — comprising persons connected with hunt- 

 ing and fishing, or who had the care of cattle, fish ponds, or 

 apiaries, — in order that he might obtain information from all 

 these quarters, ne quid usquam gentium ignoraretur ab eo. 

 And according to Athenaeus, the same prince gave him, on 

 account of the expenses incurred in composing it, 800 ta- 

 lents, — a sum, which taken at the lowest, that is, the lesser 



2o 



