Elatermm. 3S9 



and to be done efficiently, it should be attempted through the 

 natives themselves, as Europeans are too far removed from them, 

 and too little adapted to the climate, to become the immediate 

 agents to any extent in this important work. But if it must be 

 done by native agents, what method more likely to effect it, than 

 that of collecting youths from every tribe and every part of Indisi, 

 and, restraining them from nothing but idleness and positive 

 vice, to imbue their minds with the love of study and investiga- 

 tion, lay open to them, by means of an ample library and able 

 teachers, the various stores of learning and science furnished by 

 the western as well as the eastern world, and give them leisure 

 and opportunity to pursue their researches free from interruption 

 and distracting care, till they ultimately return to their own pro- 

 vinces, fraught with knowledge, and not corrupted by unreason- 

 able expectations, to become a blessing in their own sphere to 

 the end of life ? But to accomplish this, some spot is necessary, 

 secluded from those allurements to vice which abound in eastern 

 capitals, together with a library and apparatus, the collection of 

 which, with suitable buildings, and the support of able professors, 

 involves too great an expense to be provided in many different 

 places at the same time. Of the suitableness of Serampore for 

 this purpose, sufficiently near the capital of India and yet per- 

 fectly retired — and the fitness to accomplish this object, of the 

 plan now so fully laid before the public, the Conimittee leave 

 the public to judge ; in them it might appear presumption. They 

 merely add, that these ideas are the result of many years devoted 

 to the consideration of the state of India, and the most effectual 

 means of promoting its best interests. To this complete disclo- 

 sure of them, they have therefore nothing to add, but that every 

 benefaction to the Institution, whether intended as a donation 

 for the general purposes of the Institution, or for the support of 

 particular native students, — or whether it be in the form of an- 

 nual contribution for a few years, will be received with the warmest 

 gratitude, and applied with the utmost consideration and faith- 

 fulness." 



LXVII. Intelligence and Miscellaneous Articles. 



ELATERIUM. 



In the examination of elaterium, a substance whose action on 

 the human body is still more violent than arsenic, Dr. Paris has 

 discovered a new vegetable principle. The active principle of 

 this plant is lodged onlv in the juice around the seeds, and in so 

 small a quantity, that Dr. Cluttcrbuck obtained only six grains 

 from forty cucumbers j and even of this feciila, or feculence, as 



Dr. 



