259 
make a communication to the Academy is expected to send in, at 
the same time, exactly such an abstract of its contents, as is fit to 
appear in the Proceedings. This summary ought to set forth clearly 
the general nature of the communication, and the results announced 
in it, without transgressing those limits which the very name of an 
abstract suggests. 
The Committee of Science has had the satisfaction of witnessing the 
completion of the series of Meteorological and Tidal Observations, 
which the co-operation of the Coast Guard Department has enabled 
them to procure. In the subjoined Report, submitted by that Com- 
mittee to the Council, the Academy will find a statement of the pro- 
gress hitherto made towards the accomplishment of these important 
scientific objects. They engaged the attention of the Academy soon 
after its foundation; and though the greatest credit is due to the 
present Committee of Science for having organized a more perfect 
system, and attained to infinitely more extensive results; the histo- 
rian of science ought not to omit mention of the establishment in 
Ireland, under the superintendence of the Academy, of twenty sta- 
tions for barometric and thermometric observations so long ago as 
the year 1787. 
The Academy’s Library has been enriched during the past year 
by the acquisition of a large collection of Irish MSS., purchased 
from Sir William Betham by means of a subscription. To this the 
Academy itself contributed £100. The remaining sum of £403, 
necessary to complete the purchase-money, was furnished by pri- 
vate individuals, who, in so doing, testified their opinion that the 
materials of ancient Irish history ought not to be scattered or re- 
moved from the country, but deposited in a public institution 
where they are likely to be preserved with care, and made generally 
accessible. 
Out of a grant of £50, placed at the disposal of the Committee 
of Antiquities, £47 3s. 2d. has been expended, during the past 
year, in the purchase of antiquities for the Museum. But the prin- 
cipal accessions which it has received have been in the way of do- 
nations. It is fresh in the recollection of the Academy that the 
_ Commissioners of Public Works have presented to the Academy, 
