THE ROYAL DUBLIN SOCIETY 7 



to the members in Town, the day before the time for 

 meeting. The Society adjourned to this day fort- 

 night. 



The names of those who thus stood round the 

 cradle of the infant Society must ever be held in 

 honour in this country, and, though all were men of 

 note, the names of at least eight stand out prominently 

 as having, from the start and for years after, laboured 

 assiduously and unselfishly in promoting the ends it 

 had in view. Primarily, they set themselves to educate 

 those concerned in the first principles of successful 

 farming, and in endeavouring to promote industries 

 which might afford employment. As our story pro- 

 ceeds and unfolds itself, the warmest admiration must 

 be felt for them as men who seemed so much in 

 advance of their age, and who aimed at making Ireland 

 not only self-supplying, but also a great exporting 

 country. 



Michael Ward, of Castle Ward, co. Down, m.p. for 

 the county of Down 171 5 ; Justice of the King's Bench 

 1727— 1759. He was father of the first Viscount Bangor. 



Sir Thomas Molyneux, brother of William Molyneux, 

 was born in Dublin in 166 1, and studied for the medical 

 profession at Leyden. He was a friend of Robert Boyle 

 and Sir William Petty, and in London became acquainted 

 with Sir Isaac Newton, John Evelyn, and Dryden ; he also 

 met Locke. Molyneux was elected a Fellow of the Royal 

 Society, and in 1702 became President of the Irish College 

 of Physicians. In 1730 he was created a Baronet, and died 

 in Dublin in 1 733. A monument to his memory was 

 erected in Armagh Cathedral. Molyneux printed Notes on 

 the Giant's Causeway, which was the first work that main- 

 tained it to be a natural formation. He published the 

 earliest account of the Sea Mouse, and in 1696, the first 

 scientific report on the Irish Elk {Cervus megaceros) in a 



