95 



cial thanks of the Academy were voted for additions to our Na- 

 tional Museum of very singular interest and importance. The Mu- 

 seum has also been increased during the past year by purchases 

 made out of the funds placed by the Academy in the hands of 

 the Committee of Antiquities for that purpose, to the amount of 

 £61 10*. 6d. 



The Council recommended to the attention of the Academy, in 

 the course of last summer, the important work undertaken at the 

 suggestion of the Committee of Antiquities, of investigating the 

 interior of the ancient Tumulus of Dowth. As the Committee 

 have not yet made their Report on the results of the excavations, 

 it is only necessary to congratulate the Academy in general terms 

 on the commencement that has been made, by these operations, 

 of a scientific and dispassionate examination of our ancient monu- 

 ments. Nor will the cost of the work be a subject of regret, when 

 it is remembered that these singular structures are almost the only 

 records that exist of the people who were perhaps the first colonists 

 of Ireland, and whose progress may be traced, by the existence 

 of similar monuments, over a large portion of the north of Europe. 

 The importance of such investigations, therefore, considered as a 

 source of history, and as a means of mapping the migrations of the 

 human race, can scarcely be overrated. But for the present the 

 operations of the Committee have been suspended for want of 

 funds ; they hope, however, very soon to lay before the Academy 

 a full account of what has been done, together with sectional plans 

 and drawings, for which they are indebted to Mr. Frith. To the 

 professional skill and disinterested co-operation of that gentleman 

 they are under great obligations, as well as for the constant super- 

 intendence he has given to the work, without which it would have 

 been impossible for the Committee to have completed their opera- 

 tions with the strict attention to economy which has been ob- 

 served. 



Another subject of national interest has also engaged the atten- 

 tion of the Council during the past year. 



Sir William Betham having intimated to the Council that he 

 was anxious to dispose of his collection of Irish MSS., a Committee 

 was appointed to examine them and report on their value The re- 



