PROCEEDINGS 
OF 
THE ROYAL IRISH ACADEMY. 
(MSR Gia aaah I) Seder teeta ah men iatagalmrt ci ai ana es 
1840. No. 23. 
May ll. 
SIR Ws. R. HAMILTON, LL.D., President, in the Chair. 
John Davidson, Esq., James Henry Blake, Esq., Q.C., 
and Abraham Abell, Esq., were elected Members of the 
Academy. 
A paper was read by Jonathan Osborne, M.D., on Aris- 
totle’s History of Animals : 
Dr. Osborne commenced by observing, that this work 
was composed under circumstances more favourable to the 
acquisition of natural Rnowledge than any work on the sub- 
ject ever published. According to Pliny, some thousands of 
men were placed at the disposal of the author, throughout 
Greece and Asia,—comprising persons connected with hunt- 
ing and fishing, or who had the care of cattle, fish ponds, or 
apiaries,—in order that he might obtain information from all 
these quarters, ne quid usquam gentium ignoraretur ab eo. 
And according to Athenzus, the same prince gave him, on 
account of the expenses incurred in composing it, 800 ta- 
lents,—a sum, which taken at the lowest, that is, the lesser 
20 
