165 



15th of October, 1G83, to the end of 1687, after which we 

 have not been able to discover any record of its proceedings 

 from these sources. 



" The principal papers read to this body, all of which are 

 enumerated in the Minutes, were either printed in the Philo- 

 sophical Transactions, or formed the material for distinct 

 works or monographs, which were published by their respec- 

 tive authors, and many of the communications were delivered 

 in form of viva voce discourses at one sitting, and debated at 

 the next. 



*' There are two manuscript volumes of county histories in 

 the library of the University of Dublin (from which the His- 

 tory of West Connaught is now about to be printed by the 

 Irish Archaeological Society), which have generally been 

 supposed to have formed part of the Transactions of the 

 Philosophical Society ; but as some of the papers in these are 

 dated in 1682, prior to the creation of that body, and as we 

 have no notice or allusion made to any of them in the Minutes 

 of the Society, which are in every other respect so full and 

 explicit, we feel assured that they were written and intended 

 for the general survey of Ireland under Sir William Petty. 



" Dr. Plot was desired to acquaint the Provost of Trinity 

 College that the Royal Society very willingly embraced the 

 correspondence of the Society in Dublin, and had ordered 

 their secretary to write to them in the manner proposed ; ac- 

 cordingly, Mr. Aston wrote to Mr. Molyneaux to that effect, a 

 letter, dated the 26th of February, 1 684, which is inserted in the 

 unpublished Letter Book of the Royal Society, (vol, ix. p. 111). 

 " This courtesy of the Royal Society is alluded to in one of 

 the letters of William Molyneaux to his brother Thomas, then 

 residing in Holland, a portion of which I extract from the 

 interesting correspondence of those gentlemen, which I pub- 

 lished some years ago in the University Magazine. — ' I know,' 

 says William Molyneaux, ' you would willingly hear what 

 has become of our meeting here in Dublin, of which take this 



