16 
Royal Irish Academy. 
We have also lost, by death, one Honorary Member in the Section 
of Polite Literature and Antiquities : — 
Sir Henry James Sumner Maine, ll.d., k.c.s.i., f.k.s. 
Among the foregoing, Mr. D. Crofton published in our Transactions 
and Proceedings several Papers, the titles of which (given below) 
sufficiently indicate the nature of his studies, though they suggest 
rather than display his power of grappling with the difficulties of 
Oriental writings, leaving it to be regretted that more continuous 
efforts in a similar direction should not have afforded better oppor- 
tunities of fully judging his manifold attainments. 
The following is a list of the Papers by Mr. D. Crofton : — 
On the Collation of a MS. of the Bhagavad-Gita." 
*'0n Vestiges of Ancient Human Habitations in Poole's Cavern, Derby- 
shire." 
" On a Coincidence between a Babylonian Cuneiform Inscription of Nebu- 
chadnezzar and a Passage in tbe Book of Daniel." 
" On the Brick Inscribed in Archaic Characters in the Museum of Trinity 
College, Dublin." 
*'XJpon a Sculptured Slab from Nineveh, with a Cuneiform Inscription, at 
Trinity College, Dublin." 
The Academy has sustained a very deep loss in the death of the 
Rev. Dr. Jellett, the late Provost of Trinity College. His name was 
a household word among us. In how honourable an estimation he 
was held by the Academy, his election as President during the years 
1869-1874 will show. The Academy also appreciated his sterling 
worth by conferring on him its Cunningham Gold Medal in 1851. 
And Dr. Jellett reciprocated the esteem of the Academy by a loyal 
adhesion to it throughout his career. It is worth note that all 
his Papers, not published in book form, were read before the 
Academy, and appeared in its Proceedings. 
His principal mathematical work was a treatise on the Calculus of 
Variations, published in 1850. This valuable treatise furnished a lucid 
account of the researches of Continental mathematicians on the subject, 
and removed many of the difficulties and obscurities connected with this 
branch of science, especially those attaching to it in the writings of its 
great inventor, Lagrange. The treatise on the Calculus of Variations 
exhibits, in a remarkable manner, the extreme clearness of thought 
