•3;Z on arts in India. March 7, 



INTELLIGENCE RESPECTING ARTS IN INDIA. 



1 HAVE had occasion frequently to mention, in the course 

 of these volumes, Dr James Anderson, physician in Ma- 

 dras, who has so eminently distinguifhed himself for his 

 indefatigable zeal in promoting useful arts and manufac- 

 tures in India. Every dispatch brings frefti -proofs of the 

 ardour of his mind, and of his happy succefs in these lau-- 

 dable pursuits. The editor has been favoured, by the 

 Swallow packet, with a volume of printed letters, con- 

 taining his correspondence with a great variety of persons 

 In India, Africa and Europe, from the 22d of May 1787, 

 till the i6th of September 1791, containing an immense 

 variety of useful hints and discoveries in natural history, 

 and views of the natural productions, the aits, manners, 

 and private situation of the people in those remote regi- 

 ons, that are no where else to be found. Some extracts 

 from this volume will prove highly interesting to our rea- 

 ders. 



It will be recollected, that the first object of this na- 

 ture, that strongly attracted Dr Anderson's attention, 

 was 'an insect of the coccus tribe, Vhich induced him 

 to think that the cochineal insect might be reared there 

 to great advantage ; but after some trials, it was found, 

 that the coccus madraspatensis, as he named it, was not 

 the true cochineal, nor could any of the opuntia mitis, or 

 fiopa/ of the Spaniard, be found in any part of the Britifii 

 settleirents in India. At length, however, one of his ac- 

 quaintances, major Cochrane, now retired from India, and 

 settled in East Lothian, accidentally discovered this plant 

 in China, and sent some cuttings of it to Madras. About 

 the same time he received a plant of the American nopal, 

 hy another correspondent, from the -Isle of France, and a 



