Minutes of FroceecUngs. 267 



supplementary catalogue of JSTebulge, and the catalogue of Eed Stars, 

 edited by Mr. Espin, and the work of Mr. Birmingham, of Tuam, who 

 suddenly came from his retirement in the co, Galway, and became 

 celebrated as the discoverer of the variable star, T. coronce, which was 

 the first object of the kind that was brought under the examination of 

 the spectroscope. Both these Papers appear, for the present, to cover 

 all that is worth recording in their respective subjects. 



I should not omit to make mention here of the International 

 conference on a catalogue of scientific literature, which by means of 

 index slips of all scientific papers, is preparing the way for a great 

 international catalogue of scientific work. The conference was held 

 last year in the rooms of the Eoyal Society of London. A London 

 committee has been appointed, and your secretary. Dr. Wright, 

 and Dr. Tarleton, f.t.c.d., have been asked to represent Ireland 

 upon it. 



In Chemistry and Physics we are at a disadvantage as compared 

 with English Societies. We have not with us the manufacturer, ever 

 lookiug to the theoretical worker for the improvement of the processes 

 employed in his works, and the theoretical worker on the other hand 

 stimulated in his researches by the prospect of combining profit from 

 patents and from practical advice to the manufacturer, with the 

 steady acquirement of " JS'atural knowledge" in the comprehensive 

 words of the title of the Royal Society of London. The progressive 

 manufacturer is often in a position to give important aid to philo- 

 sophical inquiry. 



But in the presence of large Medical Schools in Dublin, the place 

 to which more than four millions of people look for relief from the 

 ills to which flesh is heir, when local assistance has failed, we should 

 have a very considerable stimulus to philosophic inquiry. Physics, 

 Chemistry, and Physiology go hand in hand with medical practice, 

 and perhaps the most striking examples in modern times which may 

 be cited, of the assistance which philosophic inquiry has given to 

 practical medicine, are, first, the steady work of many physicists 

 on the electric discharge in vacuo, especially of Sir William 

 Crookes, their labours seeming to show nothing beyond a purely 

 scientific interest, until a foreign worker. Professor Rontgen, put 

 the last small stone in the edifice, and brought to light the pos- 

 sibility, even the great probability, on the electric discharge in 



K.I. A. MINUTES, SESSION 1897-'98. L^J 



