1903.] Annual Address. 17 



demands much attention. The space now available in the almirahs 

 is deficient, two rows of books being found on many of the shelves, 

 and a thorough re-arrangement of the volumes should be effected, 

 after the removal of such as may be dispensed with, and the provision 

 of additional almirahs, for which space would be found in the improved 

 rooms on the groundfloor. We are fortunate in having as our General 

 Secretary, Mr. Macfarlane, the Librarian of the Imperial Library, whose 

 advice and assistance in this matter will be of great advantage to the 

 Council. He has already undertaken the revision of the Catalogue, 

 and will advise as to the purchase of new books, in regard to which 

 too little has been done in recent years. The expenditure to be incur- 

 red on this and on the improvements in the building will be we,ll 

 within our financial capacity. 



The proposal to modify the status of the Society, which was men- 

 tioned in the last Annual Report, has been indefinitely postponed, and 

 may be regarded as abandoned, by a resolution of the Council that it should 

 stand over until the finances of the Society have been placed on a more 

 settled basis. It erred, in my opinion, in seeking to give too scientific 

 a character to the Society, and to alter its name of Asiatic Society, 

 which so well recalls the objects of its foundation and its great achieve- 

 ments in the cause of Oriental research. What the history of the Society 

 has been I would here briefly notice. Founded in 1784, on the initiation 

 of Sir William Jones, it is among the oldest learned Societies of the 

 world. It has published, first, in its volumes of Asiatic Researches, and 

 subsequently in its Journal, innumerable papers of the highest value on 

 the literature, language, history, archaeology, and ethnography of India 

 and other Asiatic countries, and on the natural sciences, including as- 

 tronomy, meteorology, geology, 2oology, and botany. It commenced 

 early the formation of a Library and a Museum, giving the lead by more 

 than one generation to the Government in its Natural History collection, 

 including geological specimens. That collection, for many years in charge 

 of the distinguished naturalist Blyth in its zoological section, was event- 

 ually made over to the Government in 1866 and converted into the Im- 

 perial Museum, now located in the great building in Chowringhee. The 

 Library remains with us, and now consists of over 40,000 volumes, of 

 which about 11,000 are manuscripts. The publication of Oriental works 

 was systematically undertaken by the Society in 1835, audits Bibliotheca 

 Indica Series of publications has since included a very large number of 

 original texts and of translations of the leading works of Brahmanic 

 literature and of works in Arabic and Persian. The conservation of 

 Sanskrit Manuscripts has been another important work of the Society 

 and both in this and in the Bibliotheca Indica section it has received 

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