28 
PROCEEDINGS OF SOCIETIES. 
and is empowered to dispose of copies of the Journal to Members or 
others requiring additional copies, at the charge of Is. 6d. each to Mem¬ 
bers, or 2 8. 6d. each to non-Members ; these funds to he applied to the 
publication fund for next year. 
Two important alterations were -made in the Buies during the past 
Session,—one, passed at the Annual Meeting in November, having for 
its object the appointment of Yice-Presidents ; the other, passed at the 
May Meeting, for the establishment of a new class of Members, called 
Associates, who, by the payment of the subscription of five shillings a 
year, enjoy all the privileges of Members, except the right of voting, 
thereby enabling every young naturalist who desires it to join the So¬ 
ciety at a trifling expense. Your Council also suggested that Corre¬ 
sponding Members, on the payment of five shillings per annum, should 
be entitled to the Monthly Eeports of the Meetings, and to the volumes 
of Transactions of the year, which also received the assent of the Meet¬ 
ing. These latter alterations were made too late in the Session to allow 
of your Council reporting on their utility or otherwise, but they feel 
persuaded that they must result in the more general spread of the work 
for which this Society was originally instituted, viz., the illustration and 
elucidation of the Natural History of Ireland. 
During the past month your Council have entered into a satisfactory 
arrangement with the Dublin Chemical Society, who have agreed to hold 
their Monthly and other Meetings in your Society’s rooms ; all inter¬ 
ference with the working of this Society, however, being guarded 
against. 
One other subject demands notice, viz., the popular Meetings. Of 
these, one only was held during the past Session. This arose from a 
difficulty of procuring papers, chiefly dependent on the fact of most of 
your working Members being engaged in preparing for the reception of 
the British Association. The Meeting held was well attended, and your 
Council would recommend a further carrying out of these Meetings in 
the ensuing Session. 
So many years have now elapsed since this Society was founded, that 
your Council deem it necessary to review in brief the many important 
additions made to Irish Natural History through papers read before this 
Society. 
In 1838, to meet a deficiency long felt in this country, the Natural 
History Society of Dublin was founded, “ having for its sole object 
the elucidation of the Natural History of Ireland, which it proposed to 
effect by forming a standard collection of species, and by holding Even¬ 
ing Meetings, at which original communications relating to the natural 
history products of the island might be read and freely discussed.” 
That same year the nucleus of your present valuable Museum was formed, 
and increased so rapidly by donations (the value of a Museum, at that 
time the only one of its kind in the city in which duly authenticated 
specimens could be made available for comparison, being fully apparent 
to all), that your Society was soon compelled to remove their collection 
to apartments much more extensive than had been at first anticipated. 
