1890.] Address. 45 



attention is being paid to scientific pursuits among the natives of this 

 countiy, though it must naturally be long before the scientific habit of 

 investigation can be fully developed among them. Three Bengali 

 students have just passed the M. A. examination in Zoology, and one 

 in Geology. This is encouraging, and it is to be hoped that in time they 

 will do good original work, and that their example will be followed by 

 others. 



The opening of Technical Institutes in the Bombay Presidency and 

 the Punjab is also an encouraging sign of advance, though I feel some 

 doubt as to whether such Institutes are really the best means of 

 thoroughly teaching handicrafts, and whether some such arrangement 

 as appears to be followed in Europe of special schools attached to 

 various guilds, would not be more successful. I speak, however, with 

 an imperfect knowledge of the subject. The great thing, it seems to 

 me, is to teach the youngster the use of his hands and eyes, and when 

 this is once attained, the further development can be left to work itself 

 out. A good training of the eye in drawing and of the hands in 

 simple carpentry and smith's work would instil a habit of observation 

 and exactness and be a very good foundation to begin upon for subse- 

 quent technical or scientific education. 



Our Society. 



Of our Journal, Part I, devoted to philology, antiquities and litera- 

 ture, two parts only were published during the year, with 6 plates. 

 Mr. Grierson's valuable essay on the Modern Vernacular Literature of 

 Hindustan, which was noticed in last year's address, has been published, 

 after considerable revision, as a special number of the Journal, Part I, 

 for 1888. Special attention may be drawn to the joint paper in No. 2 

 by Mr. V. A. Smith and Dr. Hoernle on the inscribed seal of Kumara 

 Gupta II, which is accompanied by a synchronistic table of the reigns of 

 the Early Guptas and their contemporaries and immediate successors, 

 and is illustrated by an excellent collotype plate. There are two 

 papers on coins by Mr. Oliver and Dr. Hoernle ; a paper on the Antiqui- 

 ties of Rampal, by Mr, Asutosh Gupta ; our whilom guest, Mr. Lanman 

 bas contributed a note on the Namuchi-myth, and Babu Sarat Chandra 

 Das, C. I. E. has given an account of the life of Sumpa Khan-po, the 

 author of the Rehumig. 



The Journal, Part II, No. 4, of 1888, contains 9 papers, illustrated 

 by 14 plates, including 3 coloured ones of butterflies illustrating Mr. de 

 Niceville's paper on new or little known Butterflies from the Indian 

 Region, and 6 to Mr. Blanford's List of Himalayan Ferns from about 

 Simla. Babu Asutosh Mukhopadhyay contributes a paper on the Dif- 



