JUNE 24, 1915] 
NATURE 
200) 

guide. Prizes amounting to 1ool. per annum 
were offered to students of mineralogy, and these 
students were advised to attend instruction in the 
“adjoining Elaboratory”’ of the professor of 
chemistry appointed by the society.! This was in 
1792, when practical work in natural science was 
far from the thoughts of the boards of studies in 
our universities. 
It may truly be said that this chemical ‘‘ elabora- 
tory”? was the precursor and foundation of the 
Royal College of Science for Ireland, which has 
just entered its new and dignified home in the 
rear of Leinster House. The society’s library 
(p- 170), which dates from 1731, similarly gave 
birth to the National Library, now greatly ex- 
tended and developed under Government control. 

liament should have been reduced after the Union 
to little more than 5o00ol. The real recognition 
of the public work of the society by the Imperial 
Government dates from the transfer of many of 
its functions to the State, after somewhat stormy 
negotiations, in 1878. The society is now housed 
at public expense, like its kinsmen in Burlington 
House in London, and the new lecture-theatre, 
one of the most perfectly fitted auditoriums in our 
islands, received a special grant of nearly half 
its cost. 
The Registrar, Mr. R. J. Moss, contributes 
valuable chapters on the more recent progress 
and the scientific work of the society. <A fine, if 
ungrammatical, old rule (p. 17) was “that every 
member of this society, at his admission, be 


Fic. 
The sociéty’s museum has, moréover, expanded 
as the National Museum, which now includes as 
a unique feature the archeological collections of 
the Royal Irish Academy. 
The Botanic Garden at Glasnevin, on the 
plateau north of the city (Fig. 2), was established 
with Parliamentary assistance in 1751. It passed 
into Government control, with other offspring of 
the society, in 1878. 
Mr. Berry brings to this work a rare combina- 
tion of sympathetic insight and statistical ability. 
His grouping of subjects into separate chapters 
has great convenience, and that on “Finances and 
By-Laws” is of historic interest for the present 
members. It was in the nature of things that the 
grant of 15,0001. made in 1800 by the Irish Par- 
! ** Description of the Minerals in the Leskian Museum" (1798), p. ix-, 
and R. Kirwan, ‘‘ Elements of Mineralogy” (794), p. ix. 
NO. 2382, VOL. 95]| 
2.—View,in the Botanic Garden, Glasnevin, Dublin. 

From ‘‘ A History of the Royal Dublin Society.’ 
desired to choose some particular subject, either 
in natural history, or in husbandry, agriculture, 
or gardening, or some species of manufacture, 
or other branch of improvement, and make it his 
business, by reading what had been printed on 
that subject, by conversing with them who made 
it their profession, or by making his own experi- 
ments, to make himself master thereof, and to 
report in writing the best account they can get 
by experiment or inquiry relating thereunto.” 
This rule appears to be no longer laid before 
candidates for election, and it is no secret that 
the exceptionally fine premises and the lending 
library of the society induce many persons at the 
present day to become members who have no 
conception whatever of the historic dignity of the 
body which accepts their annual fees. None the 
less, as Mr. Berry and Mr. Moss clearly show, 
