150 l-'OU>^DATION AND EARLY AVORK 



U.S. TAS. 



"for til© press; foreign correspondence; correspondence 

 "with the affiliated societies; preparing the annual report, 

 "etc. ; superintending the museum and librar}^" 



(Signed by about forty gentlemen representing the Tas- 

 nianian ancl Horticultural Societies, and the Midland 

 Agricultural Associaton). 



Sir William Denison sent these proposals to the Council, 

 which received them somewhat coldly. (57c) Meantime, 

 however, the rules of the Society had been revised, and a. 

 new rule (17) was added, as follows: — "Any Member of 

 "the Tasmanian Society may be admitted into the Royal 

 "Society, without recommendation and without ballot, on 

 "his application to that effect to the Secretary, accom- 

 "panied with the 3^ear's contribution." 



The Tastfiania?i Jotir?ial, as already stated, does not men- 

 tion any meetings of the Tasmanian Society after May, 

 1848, while the Papers a?id Froc(edi?igs of our Society for 

 1849 record meetings of the Society for the reading and 

 discussion of scientific papers from August, 1848. Mr. R. 

 C. Gunn, the most active member of the Tasmanian 

 Society, was elected to the Royal Society m July, 1848. 

 Five other prominent members of the Tasmanian Society 

 joined the Royal Society in 1848, and four m 1849. The 

 Lauficeston Examiner of 18th August, 1849, in a review 

 of the last number of the Tasmanian Jour7ial, wrote : '"We 

 "understand the Society is at an end." (58) 



Early in 1848, Dr. Joseph Milligan (59) was appointed 



(57c) Minutes of Meeting of Council, 13th July, 1848. 



(58) Captain H. Butler Stoney in A Year in Tasmania (Hobart, 1854), 

 after referring to -the trusts of the Ancanthe estate, writes (p. 157) : 

 "We are uncertain whether the College at Bisliopsbourne fulfils all 

 "the conditions ; but there Is reason to believe that the Museum and' 

 "the lands, etc.', forming its endowments, liave been lianded over to 

 "the trustees for that College. The funds upon which the Tasmanian 

 "Society depended for its support, in a great measure, being tlius 

 "withdrawn, and the Royal Society having been formed about the 

 "same time with similar objects, most of the members of the former 

 "joined the latter, under the impression that one strong Society would 

 "more effectually accomplish its end than could be effected by two, 

 "having only the same amount of means at command, and double the 

 "amourit of expenditure to defray." 



It is clear that there was nothing of the nature of a formal union 

 of the societies. None of the property of the Tasmanian Society passed- 

 to the Royal Society. One of tlie sets we have of the Tasmanian 

 Journal was given to us by R. C. Gunn in 1849-. the other we obtained 

 in 1864. None of the books or records of the Tasmanian Society 

 seem to have come into our possession at that time-, the Minute-book 

 for 1841 did not come to us until 1878. A large num>)er of unbound 

 sheets of the Tasmnniftn Jnitrnal remained in R. C. Gunn's possession, and 

 after his death were bouglit by a bookseller. 



(59) Joseph Milligan, 1807-1884. Ho obtained the diploma of the 

 Royal College of S^irgeons of Edinburgh in 1829. and in 1830 he wa^ 

 appointed surgeon to the Van Diemen's Land Company at Surrey Hills., 

 where he remained 10 or 12 years. Sir John Franklin appointed him 

 to be inspector of convict discipline. He was subsequently superintend- 

 ent of tlie aborigines at Flinders Island. He was a member of the 



