170 
proceedings given. Whether the Society actually ceased to 
exist at that period is not precisely known, but Dr. Hutton 
and other authorities are of opinion that it did not till 1688.* 
The minute-book in the British Museum has no entry after 
the 6th November, 1686. For some time, both previously 
and subsequently to the last note in the minute-book, it would 
appear from the letters and other communications made by 
several of its members directly to the Royal Society, that its 
meetings were few and irregular: even so early as the 10th of 
August, 1685, we read thus in the Secretary’s letter to the 
Royal Society enclosing the minutes :—‘ Our company of 
late has been very thin, and people’s heads so much dulled 
with politics, that next meeting, I believe, we shall adjourn 
till the term.’ 
‘< The unsettled state of this country in 1687 and 1688 
caused a complete rupture of all society, public as well as pri- 
vate, and several of the principal members of the Philosophi- 
cal Society removed from Dublin. 
‘«< The subjects entertained by this Society, during the first 
four years after its establishment, may be considered under the 
following heads: Mathematics and Physics; Polite Litera- 
ture; History and Antiquities; and Medical Science, inelud- 
ing Anatomy, Zoology, Physiology, and Chemistry, And 
with some pains we have arranged, under their respective 
denominations, the following list of the principal subjects, 
together with the names of their authors, as recorded by the 
Dublin Philosophical Society during the early years of its 
existence : 
** MATHEMATICS AND PHYSICS. 
“ Mr. W. Motyngeaux.—De apparente Magnitudine Solis.—Ex- 
planation of the Volution of Concentric Circles—On Telescopic 
Sights.—On the viewing of Pictures in Miniature with the Tele- 
scope.—Calculations on the Solar Eclipse-—An Essay on Crysta- 
* Hutton’s Mathematical Dictionary, vol. ii. p. 61. 
