410 Royal Irkh Academy. 



necessary to present a Petition from the Council (12tli February) 

 praying tliat His Majesty miglit be pleased to cause an inq[uiry to be 

 made witb a view to insuring tbat the rights and privileges of the 

 Royal Irish Academy might not be endangered by the incorporation 

 under charter of an association bearing the title of "The British 

 Academy for the Promoting of Historical, Philosophical, and Philo- 

 logical Studies." 



During the past year the following papers have been read : — 



In Science. 

 Astronomy . 



Eev. M. H. Close, m.a. — " Hipparchus and the Precession of the 

 Equinoxes." 

 Botany. 



Report from the Fauna and Flora Committee by W. West, f.l.s., 

 and Prof. Gr. S. West, b.a., f.l.s. — " Contributions to the 

 Freshwater Algse of the North of Ireland." 

 Geology. 



Prof. John Joly, f.k.s. — " Solvent Denudation in Fresh and Salt 

 Water." 



Prof. J. P. O'Reilly, c.e.— " The waste of the Coast of Ireland " 

 Mathematics. 



Prof. C. J. Joly, sc.D., f.t.c.d. — (1) "The intei-pretation of a 

 Quaternion as a Point Symbol " ; (2) " Quaternion arrays " ; 

 (3) "Representation of Screws by Weighted Points and by 

 Pairs of Weighted Points." 



Frederick Purser, m.a., f.t.c.d. — " The application of Bessel's 

 Functions in the Theory of Elasticity." 



Rev. W. R. Westropp Roberts, b.d., f.t.c.d. — " Some Properties 

 of a certain Qtiintic Curve." 

 Physics. 



Dr. F. T. Trouton, f.r.s, — " The Creeping of Liquids and the 



Surface Tension of Mixtures." 



Prof. W. Ramsay, f.e.s., hon. m.e.i.a. — " The Surface Energy of 

 Mixtures of certain Liquids." 



