26 NATURAL SCIENCE. July, 



accepted the proposition of the Government that it should transfer 

 its Museum to the Dublin Museum of Science and Art as soon as the 

 building should be ready to receive it, one of the conditions being 

 that it should be retained in Ireland for the benefit of the public. 



The actual transfer of the collection to the new building did not 

 take place till after the rest of the Museum had been opened to the 

 public on the 29th August, i8go, but as the cases were ready for the 

 reception of the specimens on their arrival, they were placed on view 

 and the Gallery opened to the public within a fortnight's time after 

 the move was commenced by officers of the Science and Art 

 Department specially deputed for the purpose ; and on the 29th 

 October the lists of the specimens were duly signed in witness of 

 the transfer having been accomplished. 



Since then much has been done with reference to the better 

 mounting and arrangement of the specimens in this collection, which 

 naturally, as being the special production of Ireland, absorbs a large 

 portion of the attention of visitors, for whose benefit and instruction 

 a very detailed system of labelling with printed labels has been 

 commenced. 



To this great and most important section of the Museum I com- 

 mend your special attention. 



The Museum of the Royal College of Surgeons. 



The history of this Museum covers about the same period as that 

 of the College itself, i.e., it was founded in 1784, and in 1795 the first 

 catalogue was prepared. In 1820 it was decided to form a Natural 

 History Museum, in addition to the collection of Anatomical prepara- 

 tions. As a very full account of this Museum exists in the " History 

 of the Royal College of Surgeons," by Sir Charles Cameron, it is not 

 necessary to give further details here. To our Museum it has 

 contributed some specimens ; among them may be mentioned a 

 collection of fossil bones, and casts of fossils of Sivalik Mammalia. 



But the most important contribution was its Curator, the late 

 Dr. Alexander Carte, who, in 1851, was transferred to the Royal 

 Dublin Society as Director of their Museum, and with it he subse- 

 quently passed into the service of the Science and Art Department 

 in 1877. 



Geological Society of Dublin. 



The first annual meeting of the Society was held on the 8th 

 February, 1832, an address being given on the occasion by the 

 Rev. Bartholomew Lloyd, D.D., F.T.C.D., President of the Society. 



During the following quarter of a century or so, the Society 

 acquired a collection of rocks, fossils, and minerals, which, about the 

 year 1850, was deposited in the Museum of Trinity College, where for 

 many years the meetings of the Society were held. 



In the year 1864 the Society's title was enlarged by a " Queen's 

 Letter " to that of The Royal Geological Society of Ireland. For the 



