232 



Royal Irish Academy. 



1750, Original 

 Charter. 



Scientifically 

 administered. 



1836, Eeport 

 of Select Com- 

 mittee. 



Publication of 

 Society's 

 Journal of 

 Practical 

 Science. 



Papers in 

 Pure Science 

 occasionally 

 included. 



1866, 



Supplemental 



Charter. 



1868, Treasury 

 Commission. 



'^ The Royal Duhlin Society : Oriyin, Grotvth, and unauthorized 

 Extension of its Functions in Applied Science. 



"1. The Dublin Society was incorporated by Royal Charter in 

 1750, for promoting Husbandry and other Useful Arts in Ireland. 



" 2. Although not given any Scientific function by its Charter, 

 the Society, quite legitimately, applied itself to teaching the 

 Arts in a scientific manner, and came to be recognized by the 

 Irish Parliament as having functions bearing upon ' the Useful 

 Sciences.' There are numerous Votes and Acts, granting 

 annual sums to the Society for the promotion of {inter alia) 

 ' Science as Parliament should direct ' ; but these directions are 

 always given by Special Acts allocating the sums to the Society 

 for practical objects, including ' Schools of Drawing and other 

 useful Sciences.' See Index to Acts (Irish Parliament), ' Dublin 

 Society.' 



" 3. In 1836 a Select Committee of the House of Commons 

 recommended the publication by the Society of a Selection from 

 the Papers read at its Evening Scientific Meetings {post, 18). 

 The Society consequently published a Journal of its Proceedings 

 ' in Practical Science ' down to 1858 ; after which date Scientific 

 Papers of a less practical kind began to be, from time to time, 

 included in the Journal. It is not supposed that there was any 

 deliberate intention to go beyond the legitimate scope of the 

 Society's functions in the introduction of Papers of this character • 

 and Council is willing to believe that the practice of occasionally 

 diverging into such topics originated in mere inattention to the 

 boundary line, which, in Science, separates the extension of 

 theoretic knowledge from its practical application to purposes of 

 utility — the latter alone being, in Council's judgment, the proper 

 province of the Society. 



"4. A Supplemental Charter was granted to the Society in 

 1866, by which some changes were made in its administrative 

 constitution ; and the title, ' The Royal Dublin Society for the 

 Promotion of the Useful Arts and Sciences,' was recited in the 

 Preamble as a name by which the Society was known ; but no 

 change was thereby made in its original functions. 



'* 5. Pursuant to the recommendations of a Treasury Com- 

 mission, issued in 1868, Her Majesty's Government in 1876-7 



