334 Royal Irish Academy. 



The Reply of His Excellency the Lord Lieutenant to the 

 Academy's Address was read, as follows : — 



" He. President and Gentlemen-, 



"The loyal and dutiful devotion you have evinced towards 

 our beloved Queen, and the kindly welcome you have extended to me 

 as her Eepresentative, afford me much gratification. I assure you, I 

 fully recognize what an important work has been accomplished by the 

 Eoyal Irish Academy during the past century of its existence. 



" The record of its labours, as evidenced by the reports in the 

 Transactions and Proceedings of your Society, is one of which not 

 only your Members, but all Irishmen, have every reason to be fully 

 proud. It will give Lady Londonderry and myself much pleasure to 

 visit your famous Library, and to inspect your unrivalled collection of 

 Irish. Antiquities, which I rejoice to know will soon have a fitting 

 home provided for them in the new Museum of Science and Art. In 

 conclusion, I can only express my earnest hope, that the future 

 researches of your Members in those fields of knowledge, as yet unex- 

 plored, may refiect a similar lustre on our country to that conferred 

 by their distinguished predecessors." 



Monday, Decembek 13, 1886. 

 Eev, De. Haughton, f.e.s., President, in the Chair. 



Sir Robert Ball, e.e.s., read a Paper " On Dynamics and Modern 

 Geometry, a New Chapter in the Theory of Screws." 



Dr. Atkinson read a Paper, by Mr. John B. Btjet, m.a., e.t.c.d.,^ 

 " On the Praetorian Prefects, and the Divisions of the Roman Empire 

 in the Eourth Century a.d." 



The List of Donations was read, and the thanks of the Academy 

 were voted to the Donors. 



