277 
“TY. That the Committee of Publication shall have liberty to call in 
any member of the Council or Academy to assist them in reading or 
judging of any paper.” 
Rey. Charles Graves, D. D., concluded his paper, commenced at the 
last meeting, ‘‘ On the Disposition of the Ancient Raths and Lines of 
Road in Ireland.” 
John Francis Waller, LL. D., one of the Secretaries of the Royal 
Dublin Society, made a formal deposit, on the part of that body, of a 
number of Irish antiquities, to the Museum of the Royal Irish Academy, 
the preliminaries of which had been arranged between the officers and 
councils of both institutions some time ago. 
Mr. Wilde proposed, on the part of the Academy, the special and 
marked thanks of that body to the Royal Dublin Society for the valu- 
able deposit which had just been made, and for the liberal manner in 
which that institution had acted in the transaction—a liberality which 
he, as well as Dr. Waller, believed would act as a stimulus to other 
public bodies, whose museums contained some specimens of Irish anti- 
quities, of little value in their isolated condition, but of great importance 
to a national collection. Mr. Wilde explained that collections such as 
that of the Royal Dublin Society, or even individual specimens, were 
most valuable to the Museum of the Academy, as filling up blanks or 
connecting links in the chain of species, explaining the objects and 
uses of other articles in the Collection, illustrating varieties of art, 
and by their number showing how such things were in ‘‘ common use” 
in former times. He dwelt upon the benefits which the reciprocity of 
Societies like those in Kildare-street and Dawson-street would produce 
to science and the country. He believed the Royal Irish Academy had 
taken the initiative in this matter sixty years ago; and said, from seve- 
ral entries in the minute-books of the Academy, the Council, and the 
committees, as well as from the number and character of the donations 
presented, it was quite manifest that it was the original intention to have 
a museum of some kind—possibly a general one, including articles illus- 
trative of the three different sections of the Academy, as may be seen 
from the list of presentations prefixed to the fifth volume of the Trans- 
actions, consisting, besides the antiquities specified, of fossils and mine- 
ralogical specimens, ores, and examples of woods, engravings, and even 
stuffed birds. It appears that about the year 1801 it was thought 
advisable to confine the collection within certain limits, as may be 
gleaned from the following circumstances :—The Rey. Charles O’ Connor 
having presented some Italian fossils, with a catalogue, the Rev. George 
Graydon some fossil fish from Montebolca, and the Right. Hon. William 
Conyngham having given the Academy a collection of hard woods, 
General Vallancy, on the part of the Royal Dublin Society, addressed 
the following letter to the President of the Academy, Dr. Kirwan, on 
April 2, 1801 :— 
“‘S1z,—The Dublin Society having purchased a very fine collection 
of fossils by your recommendation, which is regularly classed under 
