148 Ceylon Literary and Agricultural Socie/j/. 



" To do this with fairness to ourselves, we should bear in 

 mind very clearly what that purpose was, as well as the means 

 which we have enjoyed of carrying it into effect. If our pur- 

 pose has been rational and useful, and the means accessible 

 and adequate, we are bound to show to the world that we have 

 not neglected the task which we have voluntarily undertaken. 

 Our purpose, detailed at large in our preliminary paper of As- 

 sociation, may be expressed in very few words ; it was the 

 collection and subsequent diffusion of information concerning 

 the civil and natural history of Ceylon. To this end we have 

 solicited the communication of information from every person 

 Avilling to furnish ii ; and having collected what may be offered, 

 then will commence our further duty of selecting such as may 

 appear sufficiently valuable for diffusion amongst the public. 



" In the first part of this task, we have made a degree of 

 progress to which I have to call your attention. 



" To our able and excellent Vice President, Dr. Farrell, 

 we owe some very valuable communications ; and we must fur- 

 ther ascribe much of the good spirit which has prevailed in the 

 department over which he presides, to his salutary influence 

 and example. 



" Amongst our correspondents of this department, Messrs. 

 Collier, Russell, and Hoatson are particularly entitled to our 

 grateful recollection. The system of conchology traced by the 

 former of these gentlemen, and founded not only on the exter- 

 nal form, but on the internal physiology of the creatures in- 

 liabiting shells, promises to supersede all those which, depend- 

 ing upon appearance, often vague and transitory, left the know- 

 ledge of that beautiful department of nature in a state of con- 

 fusion and uncertainty. We have also to thank this gentleman 

 for his kindness in forming our collection of conchology ; his 

 opportunities at Trincomalee have given him advantages, in 

 the immediate investigation of those subjects, which he has not 

 permitted to pass unemployed. 



" From Mr. Russell we have a highly useful Report upon 

 the subject of smelting the iron at Ceylon. The extraordinary 

 and valuable quality possessed by this metal, in being malleable 

 immediately from the furnace, will probably attract attention 

 amongst our manufacturers at home, to whom such a property 

 jnust in many instances prove inestimable. 



*'In Mr. Hoatson's very full account of the Singhalese prac- 

 tice of Medicine, and their Materia Medica, if we do not find 

 any tiling to rival the improved state of medical knowledge in 

 Europe, we can contemplate with some advantage the extent 

 to which a perseverance in original error, unenlightened by 



the 



