APPENDIX. Xlv 



but with every King's surgeon and assistant surgeon in Asia, who from the scientific 

 nature of their education, and the admirable regulations which Sir James has made for 

 their guidance, form a most efficient body for collecting upon the spot every information 

 which the Roval Asiatic Society can require in this branch of their researches. 



Mechanics^ Institute. 

 One of the most important and most useful of the objects which the Society has in 

 view, is the communication to the people of Asia of such of the modern improvements 

 in machinery as may be applicable to their present situation. The surest method of 

 attaining this object is to procure accurate models of the machinery in use in India, 

 to make the knowledge of them as public as possible in England, and to induce all 

 the great mechanical geniuses of the country to co-operate with the Society in the 

 work in which they arc engaged The Committee hnve therefore taken measures, first, 

 to procure from every part of Asia models of every machine which is used in that 

 quarter of the globe, together with accurate descriptions of such models, a history of 

 the different purposes for which they are emploj'ed, and a detailed account of the 

 situation and circumstances of the country in which they are found, and of the religion, 

 laws, manners, customs, character, and even prejudices of the people amongst whom 

 they are used ; secondly, to have the information they obtain respecting such machinery 

 immediately published and circulated amongst those persons in England who are the 

 most conversant with and ifttei'ested in the subject; and, thirdly, to open an easy and 

 rapid communication between the Society and the different Mechanics' Institutes in 

 Great Britain, which are composed of the greatest number of the most distinguished 

 mechanical geniuses that were ever collected together in any part of the world. What the 

 Committee have done upon the first point may be seen by a reference to the models 

 which are already deposited in the Museum, and to the descriptions which have been 

 obtained from the India-House of those models which are deposited in the library of the 

 East-India Company. What they have done upon the second point may be seen by a 

 reference to the first volume of the Register of Arts, which the Committee beg leave to 

 offer to the Society in the name of the editor, who has already entered with great 

 readiness into their vie>vs upon this subject, and intends from time to time in his future 

 volumes to devote a portion of his very valuable journal to descriptions and drawings 

 of all such machines as are in use in India, having already given, to the public in the 

 present volume, a description of the different machines that are in use in Ceylon, the 

 models of which were brought to England by Sir Alexander Johnston in 1809, at the 

 time he proposed to his Majesty's Government to adopt a measure relative to the state 

 of machinery on that island, similar to the one which the Committee have now adopted 

 with respect to the state of machinery in every part of Asia. What the Committee 

 have done upon the third point, may be seen by a reference to the communica- 

 tions which have passed between Sir Alexander Johnston and Dr. Birkbeck, who 

 is acquainted with the leading members of every Mechanics' Institute in England, 

 and has promised that, as soon as he has obtained the necessary information, he will 



