Report, 1854. 83 



and a public good too important to be left solely depen- 

 dent on voluntary exertion. 



" We now believe that the time has arrived. 



" We presume that the working of the Society is 

 already so sufficiently known to your Excellency, that our 

 entering into detail on the subject is unnecessary, but we 

 venture to urge, as special grounds of consideration : 



1st — That we have laboured assiduously to show the 

 value and object of Zoological science, by various courses 

 of lectures, in which we have been aided by many eminent 

 men of different professions, who have zealously and 

 gratuitously assisted us ; that these courses created more 

 interest, and were attended by larger classes than were 

 hitherto seen in Dublin ; and thus, that we prepared the 

 way for the reception of Zoology as a branch of scientific 

 education, and accordingly it has since taken its place, 

 with Botany, in the courses of instruction laid down by 

 the educational institutions more immediately connected 

 with the Government. 



2nd — That we have freely afforded every facility to 

 artists and students in painting and sculpture, have given 

 premiums for successful efforts therein, and that we have 

 promoted anatomical knowledge, so essential to scientific 

 progress in the schools of medicine. 



3rd — And above all, that we have afforded to the 

 working classes a most attractive place of rational recrea- 

 tion, one of which they fully avail themselves, and in 

 which they manifest a conduct so decorous as to claim 

 still further indulgence — upon this we chiefly found our 

 claim to public consideration. 



It is obvious that, at the nominal rate of one penny 

 charged for the principal number of admissions, the 

 Institution cannot be self-supporting ; it must, therefore, 

 in part depend upon voluntary contributions. These are 

 quite too uncertain and always too small, properly to 

 supply the wants of the Society, while the obtaining of 

 any large amount of annual subscriptions is hopeless, 

 co-existent with so low a rate of admission, as the advan- 

 tages offered by subscribers to the Society is thus reduced 

 in value, to those who look for an equivalent for their 

 subscriptions. The Society realizes the benefits eloquently 

 urged on various occasions by the late Sir Robert Peel, 

 Mr. Hume, Mr. Ewart, and other friends to the instruc- 



