539 



England and on the Continent was anciently appropriated as a place of 

 human habitation. 



The following donations were presented : — 



The Marquis of Kildare presented a MS. copy of the " Book of Post- 

 ings of the Forfeited Estates in Ireland, A. D. 1701." 



Dr. "W. D. Moore presented his Translation of Professor Donders' 

 work " On the Constituents of Food." 



The thanks of the Academy were returned to the donors, 



The Academy adjourned. 



MONDAY, JUNE 11, 1866. 



Sir W. E. W. "Wilde, M. D., Yice-President, in the Chair. 



The following gentlemen were elected members of the Academy : — 

 John A . Baker, Esq. ; Edward H. Bennett, M. D. ; Francis E. Cruise, 

 M.D. ; Thomas Galwey, Esq. ; Thomas Maxwell Hutton, Esq.; Eev. 

 John O'Rourke ; and Alexander Thorn, Esq. 



Dr. Thomas Hayden read a paper " On the Physiology of Protrusion 

 of the Tongue, and its Deviation to the Affected Side in Unilateral Pa- 

 ralysis." 



Mr. Eugene A. Conwell read the following paper :-— 



Has the Lia Fail on Tara Hill been Inscribed ? 



So much has already been written about the obelisk on Tara Hill, but 

 more particularly by the late lamented Dr. Petrie, to prove that it is 

 the veritable Lia Fail, or Stone of Destiny, on which the Irish kings 

 were formerly crowned, that it is with a certain amount of well-felt 

 diffidence I venture to draw attention to this stone in a new light, and 

 to head this communication with the foregoing question. 



It is well known that its present position in the great oval enclosure 

 of the Bath na Riogh, or the King's Chair, is not its original one. 

 During the current century it was removed from an adjoining tumulus, 

 called Dumha-na-N'giall, or the Mound of the Hostages, where it pre- 

 viously lay, and was erected as a headstone to the grave of thirty- seven 

 insurgents who were killed in a skirmish with the military at the battle 

 of Tara in 1798. 



On the 18th of last month (May, 1866) I paid a visit to Tara, and 

 made an examination of this stone. It stands five feet over ground ; and 

 from subsequent examination, on Saturday last, I found that it was sunk a 

 foot and a half in the earth, the entire height or length of the stone being 

 6 J feet, and its girth 4 feet 1 0 inches.* I was at first struck by finding two 



* The late eminent Dr. Petrie, in his celebrated essay " On the History and Anti- 

 quities of Tara Hall," published in the " Transactions of the Eoyal Irish Academy," 



