54 



by an incautiously administered purgative. Professor Redfern 

 concluded in the following words : — Enough has been said to 

 convince you of the importance of the health of the blood, 

 perhaps sufficient to make some afraid to eat or drink, to make 

 this or the other effort. If there be any such, let me comfort 

 them by calling to their recollection that anything they have 

 heard can make no difference in the actions of the organs and 

 tissues of their bodies, and that whether they know what goes 

 on within them or not, the security which our wonderful or- 

 ganisation affords will not be diminished. There are some 

 people who think, and I believe I have one or two young 

 friends who think with thern, that if the whole world could 

 but be taught physiology, and the laws of health be as strictly 

 laid down as mathematical formula?, physical and intellectual 

 health would improve in proportion, and we should live in 

 something like an elysium. I confess I am not so sanguine. 

 The springs of human life and action are not to be fettered in 

 that way. They are far too numerous and distant to be 

 reached in this simple manner. We must toil on, hope on, 

 trust on. When we witness the rise and fall of imperial 

 thrones, or hear of the accumulation of millions on millions 

 of money by a fortunate railway contractor, I do not know 

 that we need envy their possessors. In my estimation we 

 should do more wisely if, on arriving at our respective abodes, 

 we recall the many blessings heaped upon us, and resolve to 

 be content therewith, and strive to do our duty to the best of 

 our ability, each one in the sphere in which he or she has 

 been placed. 



On Wednesday evening, 8th March, Mr. W. H. Patter- 

 son brought forward a short paper giving an account of some 

 investigations he had made regarding antiquities in the South- 

 western part of the County of Donegal, including the district 

 from Donegal town westward to Glencolumbkille. The places 



