( cxl ) 



[Special Meexixg.] 



Monday Eveking, Max 29, 1876. 



Eev. Samvel HAUGHiojf, M. D., F. R. S., Yice-President, in the Chair. 



The Vice-President in the Chair having declared that the Meeting, 

 being special, all the Bye-laws regulating the business at Greneral 

 Meetings, unless ]!^o. 4 and l^o. 7, are not in force, left it to the Aca- 

 my to deal with them as they should deem fit. 



"Whereupon the Secretary of the Academy proposed, and David 

 Pigott, M. A., seconded — 



" That the Bye-law, ISTo. 7, be suspended for this night." 



"Which having been carried unamimously, 



Visitors were admitted. 



The Secretary of Council then read the following further Report 

 of Council, in addition to that presented to the Academy at the Meet- 

 ing of Monday, the 2nd of May. 



1. The Council have resolved by an all but unanimous vote that 

 they cannot recommend any amalgamation with the Royal Dublin 

 Society for the following reasons : — 



The objects of the Royal Dublin Society, and of the Royal Irish 

 Academy, are, and have always been, essentially different. The 

 former Society was incorporated only to promote " Husbandry and 

 other "Useful Arts in Ireland," and has done much good service in 

 those departments during its long and honorable career. The Academy, 

 on the other hand, is a body chartered for the pur'pose of scientific, 

 literary, and antiquarian research, quite apart fi'om industrial ends or 

 practical applications. The suggestion to amalgamate these bodies 

 is, in principle, the same as would be a suggestion to amalgamate the 

 Royal Society with the Society of Arts — a proposal which would 

 probably not be received with favour by those bodies ; — but the 

 incongruity is still further increased by the singular idea of annexing 

 to the projected new Society for Ireland an Agricultui'al Section. 



But even if the objects of the Societies were less distinct, this 

 Academy cannot afford to obliterate, by a change of its name and 

 constitution, the honorable memories of a hundred years. Its title is 

 associated with illustrious names, and with great discoveries; it is 

 known through the civilized world by the circulation of its Transactions, 

 and through the Honorary Members associated with it both in the 



