88 Proceedings of the Asiatic Society. [Aprin, 
out indexes or calendars worthy of the name, and in the custody 
of record-keepers of no scientific skill and comparatively little» in- 
telligence, the search fora single fact would not unfrequently 
involve the waste of years, and years of hard labour. Moreover, 
he annual destruction of valuable documents that must go on in a 
climate, like that of Bengal, must be enormous. A memorandum, 
written by the late Mr. Piddington, is noted by Mr. Torrens, (then 
Secretary of the Asiatic Society), as a paper of very great value, 
and is printed in the Journal of the Society for July 1846. It indi- 
cates some of the peculiar dangers to which documents are exposed 
in India, owing to the deleterious nature of some of the ingredients 
of the ink generally used, and to other causes. The dangers re- 
sulting from the dampness of the climate; from the ravages of 
white-ants, rats, book-worms, and other vermin ; from decay ; from 
mutilation, inflicted either intentionally, or through ignorance or 
carelessness ; from fire &c.—all these are sufficiently obvious. It will 
be within the recollection of the Society that a valuable collection 
of Oriental manuscripts, the property of Government, was recently 
damaged by rain; when a circular was issued by the Home De- 
partment, ordering that in all annual reports made by officers in 
charge of public libraries, museums, or collections, it should be 
specially stated whether or not the whole of the property is safe 
and in good condition. The present methods adopted in the pre- 
servation of all Mofussil Records are of such a nature that it is 
impossible that any documents can long remain in good condition. 
I believe that it was found, a short time ago, that the Collectorate 
Records at Jessore had been so extensively tampered with by in- 
terested parties, that the evidence of any of these documents was 
held to be almost worthless; and I have heard many district officers 
of experience state their belief that a similar state of things exists 
in many, if not in most of the Mofussil Record-Offices. It was 
stated last week in the Pioneer that the Records of the cutcher- 
ry at Ermakulam are at present inaccessible, owing to the 
number of the venomous serpents that have taken up their abode 
amongst them. 
The Records are generally placed in common wooden almiras 
fastened by ordinary padlocks, and placed in rooms of more or less 
