8 
Zoology, to an exhibition of live animals in cages. The 
only attempt to acquire fame by means of the Society’s 
Medal, was made by a London naturalist, whose essay was 
not successful, as the Council naively remark, 
‘‘ Inasmuch as its reasonings (forcible in themselves) were not 
sufficiently grounded on direct observation or experiment.” 
At the close of the fifth year of the existenée of the 
Society (1837) the flagging zeal of the Dublin public was 
stimulated by an appeal written by the President, PHmip 
Crampton, in which he sketches the 
‘Great chain of animated beings, in which each link becomes 
more and more complicated as we ascend from the lowest degree 
of organisation, which imparts an almost doubtful vitality to 
a gelatinous-like globule, to the highest which gives life and 
understanding to a Newton.” 
The Surgeon-General further exalts the dignity of a 
Zoological Garden by a quotation from Lord Bacon : 
“Natural knowledge consists in the understanding the 
properties of creatures, and the names by which they are called. 
The occupation of Adam in Paradise.” 
All was in vain : the public apathy could not be stirred up 
by the gelatinous globule, Sir Isaae Newton, Bacon, or 
even by the recollection of the occupation of our First 
Parent, Adam! 
In the year 1838, some transient effect was produced by 
a course of lectures, an example which was followed from 
time to time, down to the year 1878, when this ‘ forlorn 
hope” of the Society was again tried, and finally abandoned 
in despair. 
Your Council of to-day, having learned wisdom by 
experience, are content to report that their large collection 
of animals is in better condition than at any preceding 
Anniversary of the Society ; that the subscription list is 
fairly kept up, and that the financial state of the Society 
is not so deplorable as it has often been in times past. 
