HISTORY OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF NEW SOUTH WALES. 257 
In the *‘ Herald’’ of 14th September, 1850, an advertise- 
ment appears of the Australian Society, etc., stating that 
at a meeting of the Committee held on Tuesday the 10th 
instant, the Gold Medal of the Society for the year 1852 is 
offered, or ten guineas, to that person who shall on the 1st 
April, 1852, prove to the satisfaction of the Society that he 
has produced the largest quantity of madder root grown in 
the Colony. Henry G. Douglass signs the advertisement 
alone as Hon. Sec. This offer arose out of a statement by 
Mr. Charles Moore, at the first meeting, that he had 
received some seeds from London, and recommending the 
plant for trial. 
The Society was ina State of suspended animation when, 
at an inaugural meeting of the Philosophical Society of 
New South Wales on 9th May, 1856, His Excellency Sir 
William Denison stated that at a meeting of the members 
of the Australian Society, held at the Royal Hotel, 30th 
July 1855, ‘“‘It was resolved that the Society be remodelled 
under the title of the Philosophical Society of New South 
Wales.”’ 
In the ‘Treasurer’s statement of accounts of the 
Philosophical Society for the year ending 30th April, 
1857, he records “Taken over from the Australian Society, 
£88 1s. 6d.” i 
It is evident that a Society which retained its office- 
bearers,—Dr. Douglass the Honorary Secretary, and Mr. 
R. A. A. Morehead, the Honorary Treasurer—preserved 
its funds, and took over a number of its members to a newly 
constituted Society, could neither have been “‘extinct’’ or 
“‘dead.’?’ Asa matter of fact, it lived till 30th July, 1855, 
when it was absorbed into the Philosophical Society of New 
South Wales, which was the ‘‘Australian Society ’’ re- 
modelled. 
Q—July 3, 1918. 
