27 



Islanders are stated to be worn, Mr. Ball declared he could 

 not doubt the golden ornaments were worn in a similar 

 manner. The Sandwich Island articles to which he alluded 

 formed a part of the fine collection made in Cook's voyages, 

 and deposited in the Museum of the University. He trusted 

 he would be able to make many of the weapons and orna- 

 ments therein contained useful in throwing light on Irish an- 

 tiquities. He referred to several curious instances, where the 

 use of hypothesis had misled antiquaries, and where observa- 

 tions of existing people had set their opinions aside. He men- 

 tioned that he had recently proved, that an article long exist- 

 ing in the University Museum, and known as the best example 

 of an old form of a trumpet, had, by the discovery of its re- 

 maining parts, proved to be a chemical instrument for burning 

 gas, or inflammable vapour ; and he concluded by stating, 

 that the article figured in the seventeenth volume of the Trans- 

 actions of the Royal Irish Academy, as an astronomical 

 instrument of the ancient Irish, proved to be a piece of chain 

 armour. These two last mistakes he gave as examples of a 

 want of exactness of observation, and of the mischief of hy- 

 pothesis. 



The Secretary read a paper by Professor Young of Bel- 

 fast, on Diverging Infinite Series, and on certain Errors in 

 Analysis connected therewith. 



The subject of diverging series is one of considerable per- 

 plexity in analysis, and has given occasion to theories of ex- 

 planation involving views and statements entirely opposed to 

 the general principles of algebraical science. It has, for in- 

 stance, been aflSrmed of such series — when they present them- 

 selves as developments of finite expressions — that, though 

 algebraically true, they may, nevertheless, be arithmetically 

 false. By some they are considered to justify conclusions 

 palpably erroneous and absurd, as, for example, that 



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