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inventions, bearing upon the material progress of the human race, 
which in their ultimate results (and of those results we have by no 
means as yet reached the limit) will bear comparison with the 
invention of gunpowder, and of the art of printing; whilst in Astro- 
nomy, in Chemistry, in Physical Optics, in Geology, in Pure Ma- 
thematics, in Natural History and Botany, in Medicine and Surgery, 
the progress has been great, and is steadily increasing. 
And to this steady progress of Science it is a matter of congra- 
tulation, that this Academy, notwithstanding the disadvantages 
under which we have laboured, from the little encouragement given 
to such pursuits in this country, has nevertheless contributed her 
full share. The Telescope of a noble brother Academician has 
opened to our view regions hitherto inaccessible, and still continues 
to give promise of further discoveries in Lunar and Stellar Astro- 
nomy. The Astronomical Observatory maintained at the private 
expense of another of our Members, in a distant part of Ireland, has 
also done good service; and the Markree Equatorial is already well 
known over Europe by the addition it has made to our catalogues of 
the stars,—a subject of such great importance now, when every year 
is giving us knowledge of new bodies forming a part of our solar 
system, comets as well as planets; for it is obvious that the disco- 
very of such bodies will be greatly assisted by every addition that 
is made to our acquaintance with the place of the stars. 
It would exhaust your patience were I to enter into a detail of 
the accessions contributed to this department of the Academy’s 
labours, in the Physical and Mathematical Sciences; and it is the 
less necessary to do so, as this subject has been already brought 
before you, on occasions similar to the present, by those who were 
much better qualified for the task,—my predecessors in this Chair. 
I cannot, however, help saying, that even though we had not added, 
as we have, to the substantial results of Physical Science, this Aca- 
demy would have done its duty, in this the highest branch of its 
studies, had it done no more than contribute to the powers of ma- 
thematical calculus the noble science of Quaternions. The labours 
of MacCullagh, of Robinson, of Apjohn, of Griffith, whom I name 
as types of their respective departments, without intending any invi- 
dious distinction above others who deserve to be named even with 
