132 Royal Irish Academy, 



to Samuel Hibbert, M.D., which the latter gentleman transmitted to 

 him, with the sketches there alluded to. 



" The annexed two sketches are taken from a cast of the species 

 of money now at the present day passing current among the Africans. 

 It so strongly resembles what we saw in Ireland, that 1 thought you 

 might be interested in a copy of it. Mr. Dyson, who was for some 

 years a surgeon on board an African merchantman, brought it with 

 him ; and the first opportunity I shall make inquiries respecting this 

 and other coin used among the natives. I am told that in the country 

 they are made of solid gold, as in Ireland." 



Sir William Betham also read an extract from a letter from Mr. 

 Bonomi to T. C. Croker, Esq. 



" You asked me for a note on the ring money of Africa ; here it 

 is. So little has the interior of the country changed in that particular 

 since the days of the Pharaohs, that to this day, among the inhabitants 

 of Sennaar, pieces of gold in the form of a ring pass current as money. 

 The rings have a cut in them for the convenience of keeping them 

 together j the gold being so pure you easily bend them and unite 

 them in the manner of a chain. This money is weighed as in the 

 days of Joseph." 



These gold rings are so similar in shape to the ancient rings found 

 in Ireland, that the sketch of one accurately represents the other. 



It is a remarkable fact that the name manilla, which these brass 

 and iron articles still bear in Africa, signifies money in the Celto- 

 Phcenician Irish. Main is ' value,' « worth,' and aillech is ■ cattle/ 

 4 household stuff/ or * any kind of property.' So that in this respect 

 the derivation is similar to that of pecunia from pecus. The manillas 

 were, no doubt, introduced into Africa by the same people that brought 

 them to Ireland ; and as the negro nations have changed but little, 

 if at all, they still pass as money by their old Phoenician name. 



The Rev. James H. Todd, A.M., M.R.I.A., Fellow of Trinity Col- 

 ^ e S e > gave an account of a discovery made by Mr. John O'Donovan, 

 of a valuable though imperfect copy, in MS., of the Annals of Kilro- 

 nan, or Book of the O'Duigenans, a work that had hitherto been 

 supposed to be lost. It is particularly described in the * Proceedings' 

 of the Academy, No. 2. 



Mr. Petrie exhibited a MS. of the four Gospels, in Latin, of which 

 he had given an account in a paper read some time since before the 

 Academy. This manuscript is said to have been that given by St. 

 Patrick to the first Bishop of Clogher. It is inclosed in a brazen 

 case, of very curious workmanship, on which the circumstances con- 

 nected with the gift are represented in highly raised figures. 



Professor Lloyd communicated to the Academy the continuation of 

 his investigations '*■ On the Propagation of Light in uncrystallized 

 Media." 



In the first part of this paper, read on a former evening, the author 

 had expressed his conviction that the problem of wave-propagation in 

 bodies was incompletely solved, unless the action of the material 

 molecules be taken into account. This he has attempted to do in the 



