399 
Monpay, Novemser 10tH, 1856. 
JAMES HENTHORN TODD, D.D., Presipent, 
in the Chair. 
W. R. Wi1pe, Esq., read an account of a MS. of Dr. 
Willoughby’s, written in 1690, “« On the Climate and Diseases 
of Ireland.” _ 
** Doctor Charles Willoughby was a physician, practising 
in Dublin towards the end of the seventeenth century. Of 
his family history we at present know nothing; but it is not 
unlikely that he was connected with Willoughby, the cele- 
brated. ornithologist. The name is English, but from such 
expressions in the following manuscript as ‘ my country,’ and 
‘my countrymen,’ the author appears to have been born in 
Treland. That he must have been a man _ of considerable 
scientific attainments, as well as high professional standing, 
_ ‘may be inferred from the fact that upon the establishment of 
_ the Dublin Philosophical Society in 1683-4,—the prototype 
_ of the Royal Irish Academy,—he was chosen its first Direc- 
_ tor, the office of President not having been then instituted. 
‘ * Of that Society I gave an account to the Academy more 
q than twelve years ago, and a more detailed description of it 
b,. will be found in my preface to the first volume of the ‘ Dublin 
b - Quarterly Journal of Medical Science,’ published in February, 
re) 8.46. Dr. Huntingdon, the Provost of Trinity College, Dub- 
y lin, writing to Dr. Plot, of the Royal Society, in 1683, says : 
« I don’t give you the names of our Society, because you 
a know few of them, except the Bishop of Ferns and Leighlin, 
‘Sir William Petty and Dr. Willoughby.’ To these gentle- 
men, along with William Molyneux, who afterwards became 
- their Secretary, were entrusted the regulations by which the 
- Society was to be governed. 
= VOL. Vi. 2P 
