( 342 ) [July, 



II. THE LAMBETH OBSEKVATOPtY. 



By KoBEET James Mann, M.D., F.K.A.S. 



In the outer courtyard of the Government India Store, situated in 

 the Belvedere Koad, Lambeth, and on the bank of the Thames, on 

 tlie direct hue of river-side thoroughfare between the Waterloo and 

 Westminster Bridges, there stands a very complete and pretty little 

 observatory devoted to severe philosophic work, which would cer- 

 tainly not be looked for by the uninitiated in this locahty and in 

 these surroundings. The establishment is of modern date, and but 

 little known. Its history, and the reason for its occupying this 

 site, are, however, simple and plain. It rose to its present position 

 when the Indian Store disappeared from the old and traditional 

 ground of Leadenhall Street, and when the Indian administration 

 took westward wing to find its new and more convenient home in 

 Downing Street. At that time it was thought meet to provide a 

 lodgment for the store department nearer to head-quarters, and a 

 very commodious building was accordingly erected in the Belvedere 

 Koad, and opened in the month of February, 1864. The general 

 purpose of this building is to furnish a temporary warehouse in 

 which all articles destined for the military, medical, and educational 

 branches of the Indian service may be received, examined, and 

 packed for shipment. 



A considerable number of scientific instruments of various 

 classes have for some time been annually sent out for use in India 

 under the auspices of the Indian Government. In the old days of 

 the Indian administration, the custom in regard to such instru- 

 ments was that a sealed pattern of each kind of instrument in 

 occasional demand was kept in the store department attached to the 

 establishment in Leadenhall Street, and whenever a sujii^ly was 

 requhed for service m India, the instrument makers of England 

 were invited to send tenders of the prices at which they would 

 undertake to furnish the required articles, constructed in exact 

 imitation of the sealed patterns. In general practice, the maker 

 who offered to supply at the lowest jprice received the commission ; 

 and when it was executed the instruments were sent in to the 

 store, superficially compared with the pattern to see that they were 

 of the kind that had been ordered, and were then shipped off to 

 India, and the transaction was held to be complete. 



In this proceeding the real excellence of the instrument, its 

 real fitness for the satisfactory performance of the work it was 

 designed to accomplish, was altogether left to the accident of the 

 way in which the maker might be able or willing to perform his 



