Minutes of Proceedings. 17 



The Academy was recently invited by the Lords of the Committee 

 of Council on Education to nominate three persons to act as Members 

 of the Board of Yisitors, constituted, in accordance with Lord Sandon's 

 letter of the 8th of February, 1876, to aid their Lordships in the ad- 

 ministration of the new Science and Art Museum to be founded in 

 Dublin, as well as of the Natural History Collections and the Botanic 

 Gardens, which are to be associated with that establishment. The 

 Academy accordingly nominated the Rev. John H. Jellett, Samuel 

 Ferguson, LL. D., and Sir Robert Kane, to act on the Board. 



A proposal was made to the Council of the Academy in April last 

 by the Council of the Royal Dublin Society for a Conference between 

 the President and Science Committee of the Academy and twelve 

 members of the Royal Dublin Society, whose names were given, to 

 consider certain suggestions which had been made by a Committee of 

 the Royal Dublin Society, the most important of which was, that "it 

 would be desirable that a Society devoted exclusively to Science should 

 exist in Dublin." A correspondence between the two Councils took 

 place on the subject, the result of which was, that the Council of the 

 Royal Dublin Society declined to accept the Conference under the con- 

 ditions which the Council of the Academy thought it necessary to 

 prescribe. The correspondence is given in an Appendix to the present 

 Report, which also contains a letter which the Council thought it their 

 duty to address to the Secretaries of Her Majesty's Treasury, in rela- 

 tion to one of the heads of agreement between the Government and 

 the Royal Dublin Society, embodied in the Memorandum of Provisions 

 agreed to on the 5th of March, 1877. 



It is known to the Members of the Academy that the British 

 Association for the Advancement of Science will hold its next meet- 

 ing in Dublin, in August of the present year. The Council of the 

 Academy, at the request of the Lord Mayor, nominated several 

 gentlemen to act on the Local Committee appointed to make arrange- 

 ments for the reception of the Association. The Academy has also 

 resolved, on the suggestion of the Council, to give a Conversazione on 

 the occasion, as it did when the Association last visited Dublin. A 

 subscription amongst the Members of the Academy has accordingly 

 been opened. The Reception Committee of the Association has offered 

 to place £100 at our disposal towards the requisite expenses. It is 

 understood that all Members of the Association, as well as Members 



K, I. A. MINUTES, SESSION 1877-8. f^l 



