268 Royal Irish Acadp.my. 



vacuo becoming one of the daily implements of the surgeon. And 

 to go just a little further back, have not the labours on another 

 and essential part of the apparatus, the induction coil, the work of 

 Euhmkorjffi, Ladd, Apps, and many others, or we might even go so far 

 back as that distinguished countryman of ours, the late Dr. Callan, of 

 Maynooth College, which have gradually vastly improved that instru- 

 ment, contributed to this result ; and are we not aided much by the 

 labours of Plante and others, who have transformed an interesting 

 instrument, the secondary cell, into a practical commercial instrument 

 ready at a moment's notice to provide the needed electrical energy ? 



Again, have not the theoretical labours of physiologists opened up 

 a new method of treatment which has been called preventive medicine? 

 For many years their philosophic labours had been pursued, and no 

 practical result was apparent until Pasteur showed in a way which 

 seems to have convinced all leading physiologists that these inquiries 

 admitted of practical applications. Philosophical inquiry and applied 

 science go hand in hand, and feel that they may be working one for 

 the other. 



The Oxford University Observatory was largely assisted in it& 

 foundation by the late Mr. De la Rue, who devoted much of his 

 leisure in the intervals of business to the cause of science. 



The late Mr. Grassiott, also a busy man in the commercial world, 

 on the discontinuance of the annual grant from the British Association, 

 came forward and permanently endowed the magnetical work of Kew 

 Observatory, and, more recently, the Davy-Paraday research laboratory 

 has been founded and attached to the Eoyal Institution, being housed, 

 furnished, and equipped for work through the munificence of a 

 gentleman (Dr. Mond) who was in a position to do so through the 

 successful application of the principles of chemistry to a chemical 

 manufacture. Such instances might be multiplied ; but in most parts 

 of Ireland we have one art and industry only — that of agriculture. 

 Will it always be so ? May we not look for some measure of success 

 from the efforts of those who are doing their best to find some means 

 for establishing Arts and Industries in Ireland ? Progress in such a 

 direction must necessarily be slow ; but should some of the manu- 

 facturing life and energy which exists in many districts of England, 

 and in a measure in some parts of Ulster, spread to other parts of this 

 island, may we not look forward to the retention at home of some 



