54 A HISTORY OF 



CHAPTER IX 



THE SCHOOLS OF CHEMISTRY AND MINERALOGY 



(1786-1836) 



A Scotchman named Donald Stewart was in 1786 

 employed by the committee of agriculture in making 

 searches for fossils and minerals, along the banks of the 

 Grand Canal and in the county of Wicklow, for which 

 he was paid a guinea a week while at work. 1 After a 

 time, he reported in writing on his searches, the reports 

 being referred to a special committee, in whose opinion 

 his observations on surveys of the counties of Wick- 

 low and Wexford were valuable. In March 1787, 

 Stewart was directed to go to the northern parts of the 

 kingdom, for the purpose of sending to Dublin a suffi- 

 cient quantity of Fuller's earth from pits which he had 

 discovered, so that its qualities might be tested by 

 Dublin manufacturers. He sent up above 3 cwt., 

 which was divided between Messrs. Rickey, Parker, and 

 Rankin, woollen manufacturers. In March 1788, he 

 again reported on the counties of Wicklow, W'exford, 

 and Waterford, and he was directed to make a tour 

 through the county of Clare, under the orders of Sir 

 Lucius O'Brien, bart. 



In 1789, the committee of agriculture reported 

 that the different clays raised from a pit on the estate 

 of His Excellency the Marquis of Buckingham, in the 

 county of Clare, might be of great use, but it was 



1 A report on mines and minerals in the county of Dublin will be 

 found in the Statistical Survey of that county (1800). 



