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DUB
LIBRARIES.
The Library of Trinity College, by much the largest
not only in Dublin but in Ireland, is described
under the head of the institution of which it forms
a portion: the King’s Inns library is also noticed in
like manner. St. Patrick’s or Marsh’s library was
founded by Dr. Narcissus Marsh, archbishop of Dub-
lin, in the vicinity of St. Patrick’s cathedral; it con-
tains the celebrated Dr. Stillingfleet’s collection and
some manuscripts. The apartment for the books con-
sists of two galleries meeting at a right angle, in
which is the librarian’s room. The library is open
on liberal terms, a certificate or letter of introduction
from some respectable and well-known character being
all that is required: it is under the government of
trustees appointed by act of parliament. The Dublin
Library Society originated in the meeting of a few indi-
viduals at a bookseller’s in Dame-street to read news-
papers and periodicals. Having formed a regular
society, a library was opened, in 1791, in Eustace-street,
which was removed in 1809 to Burgh-quay, and finally,
in 1820, to a building in D’Olier-street, erected for the
special purpose, by shares. The building is plain but
elegant, and contains a spacious apartment for the
library, another for newspapers and periodicals, and
a few smaller rooms for committees and house offi-
cers. The public rooms are ornamented with busts
of John Philpot Curran, Daniel O’Connell, Henry
Grattan, Archibald Hamilton Rowan, and Dean Kir-
wan, and with portraits of the first Earl of Charlemont
and of Curran. The medical libraries of the College
of Surgeons and Sir Patrick Dun’s hospital are well
selected and rapidly increasing. Steevens’s Hospital,
the Royal Hospital, Christ-Church, and Strand-street
Meeting-house have each a collection of books, none of
any great extent. The private library of the Earl of
Charlemont is highly worthy of notice. It is contained
in a building attached to the town residence in Palace-
row: the entrance to it is by a long gallery, ornament-
ed with antique busts, vases, and altars, which opens
into a large vestibule lighted by a lantern, which
contains the works on antiquities and numismatics,
and has in a recess the statue of Venus and eight
busts of ancient and modern characters of celebrity.
The principal library contains a fine and well-selected
collection of ancient and modern writers on most de-
partments of literature and some of science, very ju-
diciously and happily arranged} also some manu-
scripts, and an unique collection of Hogarth’s engravings,
mostly proofs. Over the chimney-piece is a fine bust
of Homer. Attached to the library is a small museum,
a medal room, and a smaller library of very elegant
proportions, containing busts of the Earl of Rocking-
ham and General Wolfe.
SURGICAL AND MEDICAL INSTITUTIONS.
The Royal College of Surgeons was incorporated
in 1784, for the purpose of establishing a “liberal
and extensive system of surgical education:” a parlia-
mentary grant was afterwards conferred on it for pro-
viding the necessary accommodations. Sums amount-
ing in the whole to £35,000 were granted for erect-
ing and furnishing the requisite buildings; besides
which, £6000, the accumulated excess of the receipts
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DUB
over the disbursements of the college, were expended
in 1825 in the addition of a museum. The front
of the building, which is situated on the west side of
St. Stephen’s-green, has a rusticated basement story,
from which rises a range of Doric columns support-
ing a tier of seven large windows, the four central
columns being surmounted by a triangular pediment,
on which are statues of Minerva, Esculapius and
Hygeia. The interior contains a large board-room, a
library, an apartment for general meetings, an examina-
tion hall, with several committee-rooms and offices, four
theatres for lectures, a spacious dissecting-room with
several smaller apartments, and three museums, the
largest of which, 84 feet by 30, with a gallery, contains
a fine collection of preparations of human and com-
parative anatomy; the second, with two galleries, con-
tains preparations illustrative of pathology and a col-
lection of models in wax, presented by the Duke of
Northumberland when lord-lieutenant; and the third,
attached to the anatomical theatre, contains a collection
for the illustration of the daily courses of lectures. The
College consists of a president, vice-president, six censors,
twelve assistants, secretaries, members, and licentiates.
Candidates for a diploma must produce certificates of
attendance on some school of medicine and surgery for
five years, and of attendance at a surgical hospital for
three years, and must pass four half-yearly examina-
tions, and a final examination for letters testimonial in
the presence of the members and licentiates on two
days: rejected candidates have a right of appeal to a
court constituted for the purpose, which is frequently
resorted to. Attached to the school are two professors
of anatomy and physiology, two of surgery, a professor
of chymistry, one of the practice of medicine, one of
materia medica, one of midwifery, and one of medical
jurisprudence, with four anatomical demonstrators;
the lectures commence on the last Monday in October,
and close on the last day of April.
The College of Physicians was first incorporated
in the reign of Chas II., but the charter being found
insufficient, was surrendered in 1692, and a more ample
charter was granted by William and Mary, under the
designation of the King and Queen’s College of Physi-
cians in Ireland. This charter, which conferred con-
siderable privileges, was partly confirmed by successive
acts of parliament, which gave the society authority
to summon all medical practitioners for examination,
to inspect the shops and warehouses of apothecaries,
druggists, and chymists, and to destroy all articles
for medical use which are of bad quality: it has also
a principal share in the superintendence of the School
of Physic. No person can be a member of the
College who has not graduated in one of the univer-
sities of Oxford, Cambridge, or Dublin. The officers
of the college consist of a president, vice-president,
four censors, a registrar, and a treasurer; the mem-
bers hold their meetings at Sir Patrick Dun’s hospi-
tal, of whose bequests for the promotion of medical
science they are trustees. The School of Physic is
partly under the control of the Board of the Univer-
sity, and partly under that of the College of Physi-
cians; the professorships of anatomy, chymistry, and
botany being in the appointment of the University,
who elect the professors, thence called University pro-
fessors; those of the practice of medicine, the institutes
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