Reprint from the Papers and Proceedings of the Royal Society of Tasmania for 1913 entitled 'The foundation and early work of the society; with some account of earlier institutions and societies in Tasmania' , by Edmund Leolin Piesse. Read on 13th October, 1913, at a Meeting held in celebration of the Seventieth Anniversary of the Society. An account of the works of earlier Institutions and Societies, including the Van Diemen's Land Agricultural Society (1821), and the Royal Society of Tasmania, 1843-1848.