94 



and for collecting and preserving information that would otherwise, 

 perhaps, be inevitably lost; and it will always be in the power of 

 the Academy to select the most competent person for making such 

 Eeports ; and to award to him a prize proportioned in value to the 

 time and cost of the investigation, or else to throw the prize open 

 to competition, and to adjudge the reward to the Essay that is found 

 to be the most complete and satisfactory. 



The following are the regulations as finally agreed to by the 

 Council : 



" 1. That Medals given under the Cunningham bequest be open 

 to the authors of all works or essays in the departments of Science, 

 Polite Literature, or Antiquities, which shall be printed and pub- 

 lished in Ireland, or which shall relate to Irish subjects. 



" 2. That the award of Medals be taken into consideration by 

 the Council every third year, at the first meeting after the 1 6th of 

 March, and that it be confined to papers or works published within 

 the six years preceding. 



" 3. That the Council shall, from time to time, grant money 

 premiums for Reports or Essays upon stated subjects, reserving to 

 themselves the power of printing the papers or not, as they deem 

 expedient. 



" 4. That at the next award of Medals, the papers contained in 

 Vols. XIX. and XXI. be taken into consideration. 



" 5. That the existing regulations, as to the manner of deciding 

 on papers for Medals, shall continue in force." 



The Library during the past year has been enlarged by several 

 valuable donations, which have been acknowledged from time to 

 time in the Proceedings. It has also been added to by purchase : 

 but, from the limited funds at the disposal of the Council, these 

 purchases have necessarily been but few, amounting in all to the 

 sum of £99 10s., which includes the annual subscriptions of the 

 Academy to scientific and literary Journals and Reviews. 



The Museum has also received many valuable donations, which 

 have been enumerated in the Proceedings. Among them it may be 

 permitted to the Council to notice, from their peculiar magnitude 

 and value, the Antiquities presented by Lord Farnham, and by our 

 constant benefactors, the Shannon Commissioners, to whom the spe- 



