Minutes of Proceedings. 327 



phenomenon of Conical Refraction — of his theory of Quaternions — of 

 IfCullagh's beautiful researched on Fresnel's AVave, and on the Sur- 

 faces of the Second Order — of Lloyd's experimental verification of 

 Conical Refraction, of his Meteorology of Ireland, and of most of his 

 memoirs on Magnetism ; of Petrie's Hill of Tara, and his Ecclesiastical 

 Architecture of Ireland. All these^were brought before the Academy, 

 and published in its Transactions. Other most valuable labours fell 

 within the same limits of time — such as those of Todd, O'Donovan, 

 and 0' Curry, on the sources of Irish History and the philology of the 

 Irish Language, and those of Larcom on topography and local history. 

 To the same period, too, belongs the first formation of our fine collec- 

 tion of national antiquities — now one of the chief glories of the 

 Academy — which was made accessible to study by the Catalogue of 

 -Sir William Wilde. After this, which I have called the "great period" 

 of the Academy, comes the time in which most of us have lived; when 

 the tropical productiveness which marked the preceding stage had 

 •ceased, but much good and solid work was done ; the progressive 

 ■development of knowledge going on, not by leaps and bounds, but by 

 the slowly accumulating partial results of many inquirers. If I do 

 not mention the names of those who have taken part in these more 

 recent labours of the Academy, indeed, of any nisi quos Lihitina sa- 

 cravif, it is not that I undervalue their abilities or services ; far 

 otherwise ; it is because it would be presumptuous in me to charac- 

 terise their contributions or weigh their merits. To the Members of 

 'Our body it is sufficiently known who have done most to sustain the 

 reputation of the Academy during the past generation — it is enougli 

 to say, that most of them are gathered round our festive board to-day, 

 iis are also many of those who may be relied on to sustain its reputa- 

 tion in the years to come. Amongst the tasks which lie before the 

 Academy in the future, there is one to which I wish to call attention, 

 because it is urgent, and ought not to be postponed. The other 

 branches of the Indo-European family of languages having now been 

 sufficiently explored, the attention of philologists is becoming in a 

 :great degree concentrated on the Celtic tongues. By a grant from the 

 Government, with some assistance from Trinity College, the Academy 

 has been enabled to reproduce some of the most important ancient 

 Irish texts, so as to make them available for the study of scholars, 

 both at home and abroad. ]Srow, the effect of the increasing study of 



