Report of the Council [continued). 
ci 
in that room ; and an intimation has been received that this unsatisfac- 
tory state of things may be expected to be remedied during the present 
year. 
The Academy has already sanctioned the following grants from 
the Fund at its disposal for aiding Scientific Researches by provid- 
ing suitable instruments and materials : — 
£30 to Messrs. Draper and Moss, towards their Researches on 
Selenium ; and 
£35 to Mr. G. J. Stoney towards the construction of the Academy's 
Spectroscope. 
And the Academy will be asked at the Stated Meeting to give its 
assent to the following additional grants : — 
£30 to Messrs. Studdert and Caldwell for the chemical analysis of 
the mineral waters at Lisdoonvarna, in the County of Clare ; 
£30 to Professor Macalister, to be expended in the purchase of rare 
insectivora and other mammals for dissection, in order to enable him to 
report on the Myology of Mammals ; 
£40 to Mr. W. Baily to investigate the fossils of the coal districts 
in Ireland, with a view to their comparison with those of British and 
other coal-fields ; 
£50 to Professor Haughton to complete an investigation into the 
chemical and mineral composition of the successive lava-flows of 
Vesuvius; and 
£39 17s. \ \d. (being the remainder of the fund) to Dr. David Moore 
for the investigation and arrangement of the Irish Hepaticse. 
Gentlemen proposing to undertake scientific researches during the 
coming year, and desirous to obtain grants from this Fund, are invited 
to send in their applications to the Council at the earliest possible date. 
We offered last year two prizes from the interest of the Cunning- 
ham bequest, open to general competition, for Reports on the Irish 
Language and Irish Literature, written and unwritten, in the pro- 
vinces of Munster and Connaught. We have received seven Reports, 
but we have not yet had time for their careful examination, and are 
therefore unable to state whether any of them possesses such a degree 
of merit as to entitle it to a prize. 
The Treasurer reports that the general financial condition of the 
Academy is highly satisfactory. 
We have lost by death, within the year, four Honorary Members^ 
viz. : — 
1 . Louis J. R. Agassiz. 
2. Christopher Hansteen. 
3. Baron .Tustus Von Liebig. 
4. Lambert A. J. Quetelet. 
R. I. A. PROC— SER. II., VOL. I., MINUTES. 
r 
