ZOOLOGICAL AND BOTANICAL ASSOCIATION. 41 



Thore are two circumstances connected with this Society, which de- 

 serve a special mention, though m< o.-suiily brief: first, the establish- 

 mciit of the zoological lectures ; and secondly, the penny admission to 

 the (iardens for the working classes. ' 



The lectures commenced in the year 1838, and were eminently suc- 

 cessful For some years many of the most distinguished individuals in 

 Dublin took part in them ; much interest was manifested in the subjects 

 brought forward ; and a large accession to the funds of the Society ac- 

 crued. Dr. Ball himself gave a hearty co-operation, and delivered five 

 lectures, which appeared in Saunders' Newsletter; one of those was 

 that referred to (ante, p. 27); the others were on " Sloths," on " Birds," 

 on " Electrical Fishes ;" and in the winter of 1840, a resume of those 

 previously delivered during that season. Some of those lectures he 

 prepared with great care, and rendered them highly philosophical, 

 though popular, expositions of the^ subjects discussed. 



The penny admission on Sunday after 2 o'clock was first instituted 

 in 1840. In 1855 the same privilege was extended to visitors to the 

 Garden after 6 o'clock in the summer evenings. The Reports of the 

 Council give us the exact number of penny admissions in each succes- 

 sive year, and is the best proof of their importance. From the fifteen 

 years, from 1840 to 1855, the average annual attendance was 75,450 ! 

 Who can estimate the amount of harmless pleasure that has thus been 

 diffused among the humbler classes of a populous city ; or the infor- 

 mation imparted, and the craving for further knowledge inspired; or 

 the intemperance averted; or the blessed influences called into ac- 

 tivity, when the members of a toiling family partake of a pleasure 

 which tends to elevate and to refine ? 



It was a great source of satisfaction to Dr. Ball that the arrange- 

 ment by which the lloyal Zoological Society was to receive £500 a year 

 from Government, to be paid through the lloyal Dublin Society, was 

 tilt i -ted. It not only gave to the Zoological an assured stability, a cer- 

 tainty of income, but it was the public recognition of a principle as yet 

 but imperfectly acknowledged, that the study of Zoology is worthy of 

 support from the public funds of the nation. 



The subject of Educational Zoology, and its intellectual and moral 

 influences, was adverted to by Dr. Ball and others on several occasions 

 in the courses of lectures delivered before this Society. It was one that 

 he had much at heart, and which I find often mentioned in his letters. 



ZOOL. & BOT. SOC PROC. VOL. I. O 



