LINirEA:^ SOCIETY OF LOTTDOK. 



XIX 



have been favoured with the reports of several years. This 

 flourishing institution is under the patronage of the Primate of 

 Ireland, and the presidency of the distinguished astronomer Dr. 

 Eobinson. Lectures have been delivered on Natural History, 

 and there is the nucleus of a good Museum, and it is now pro- 

 posed to form a collection of the Fauna of Ireland. Here also 

 there is no publication of the Society's contributions to science. 



The last Society on which I shall detain you is that of Dun- 

 gannon. Here lectures have been given from time to time 

 upon Natural History, by Mr. Patterson of Belfast, Professor 

 Allman, and others, and prizes awarded for proficiency in this 

 science. Papers are read at the meetings, but there is no oppor- 

 tunity of publishing them offered by the Society. 



A great number of very interesting details connected with the 

 several societies to which I have now briefly called your attention, 

 and others, have come to my hand, but I have not thought it ne- 

 cessary to detain you by relating them. I must, however, ask yoiu' 

 attention for a few moments whilst I mention some reflections wliich 

 have occurred to me, arising out of the perusal of these reports. 



The first remark I would make is, that the arrangement and con- 

 stitution of the Queen's University in Ireland, and the Colleges in 

 connexion therewith, recognize the right of the various provincial 

 Associations to apply to them for appointed lecturers, amongst the 

 professors in the colleges, to give courses of lectures on Natural 

 History to the members, and to others who wish to attend them. 

 A second circumstance connected with the general details which 

 I have glanced at is, that when such lectures are given by really 

 competent persons, they are attended by large numbers of those 

 who are anxious to obtain good solid information in the science of 

 Natural History. 



The importance of these facts as bearing upon the intellectual, 

 and therefore the moral character of the Irish people, if carried 

 out as it has been begun, can scarcely be overrated. But the con- 

 sideration arising out of these circumstances, which I would most 

 particularly impress upon your minds as a Society, is, that with all 

 the advantages derived from the existence and due administration 

 of the Institutions which I have been enumerating, and the re- 

 cognition in so many ways of the importance of Natural Science as 

 a branch of popular education, and the mass of facts which must 

 be continually brought before them, there are, with two or three 

 exceptions, no means whatever provided for the register of those 

 facts, or for the publication of communications made to the Socie- 



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