( 888" ) 
X.—ON THE COLLECTION OF THE FOSSIL MAMMALIA OF IRELAND IN THE 
SCIENCE AND ART MUSEUM, DUBLIN. By V. BALL, M.A. F.RB.S., 
F.G.S8., Director of the Museum. (Plate XI.) 
[ Read, 18th May, 1885. ] 
As I have been long impressed with the desirability of conveying information to 
visitors to museums generally by means of specially prepared descriptive labels 
of more detailed character than those which are commonly used, no time has 
been lost in making a beginning in that direction, since the opportunity of doing 
so has been afforded by the establishment of a printing press in connexion with 
the Science and Art Museum. 
So far as labels of this character have been prepared by the officers of the 
different departments in the Museum, the results have not only been satisfactory 
locally, but the form which has been adopted has received commendation from the 
officers of some of the principal museums in the kingdom, several of whom have 
expressed their intention of adopting similar labels for their own collections. 
Our collection of the Irish Fossil Mammalia being the largest and most im- 
portant one in existence, and having been recently re-arranged, afforded numerous 
suitable subjects for such labels, and the present Paper consists principally of a 
reprint of those already prepared. It will be observed that, being intended for 
popular usage and instruction, they are as far as possible free from technical 
language; at the same time they give a resumé to date of all that is most im- 
portant in the history of the species to which they respectively refer. 
The species are arranged under three headings, as follows :— 
I.—Preuistoric Mammats.—( WILD.) 
I].—Prenistorrc Mammats.—( Domestic. ) 
IIJ.—P.eistocenr MAmMALs. 
Owing to the number of Dublin journals in which Papers on the Irish Mam- 
malia have been published, authors have often confused the references. I have 
therefore prepared a complete bibliography of the subject as an Appendix to this 
Paper. 
I would only add, that to the Papers by the late Drs. Leith Adams and Carte 
I am largely and more especially indebted for the information contained in the 
following pages. 
TRANS ROY. DUB. SOC., N.S. VOL. III. DNs 
