and its Collection of Birds. 67 



by broken health to retire in 18G2, and died in England in 

 1873. (See ' Ibis/ 1874, p. 465.) 



As early as 1856 the Conncil of the Asiatic Society 

 entered into commnnication with the Government on the 

 subject of the foundation at Calcutta of an Imperial 

 Museum, to which the whole of the Society^s Collections 

 were to be transferred. But the mutiny in that year put a 

 stop to anything being done, and it was not until 1862 that 

 negotiations on this subject were really commenced. These 

 were protracted until the middle of 1865, when the terms of 

 the settlements were finally made and embodied in a law 

 (Act XVII. of 1866). By this Act the Society made over 

 all its zoological, geological, and archaeological collections to 

 a public museum, to be established and maintained by the 

 Indian Government and to be controlled by a board of 

 trustees. It was agreed also that the Government should 

 provide accommodation for the Society in the Museum to be 

 built, of which accommodation it should have exclusive 

 control, and that the Society were to have the right to 

 nominate one-third of the members of the board of trustees. 



Dr. John Anderson was appointed curator of the new 

 Imperial Museum in 1865, prior to the complete incorpora- 

 tion of the trustees under Act XVII. of 1866, and took 

 charge of the collections of the Asiatic Society, although 

 there was no formal handing over of these collections till 

 many years afterwards. The trustees held their first meeting 

 in 1866, and have continued their regular monthly meetings 

 ever since. 



In December 1867, Dr. Anderson went out with the first 

 Yunnan expedition as surgeon-naturalist, and Dr. Collis 

 ofiiciated in his place. Dr. Collis was succeeded by Messrs. 

 Stoliczka and Ball, of the Geological Survey, and by them 

 two copies of a list of the collections of the Asiatic Society 

 were made, one of which was kept by the trustees and the 

 other by the Asiatic Society. 



Mr. Wood-Mason was then appointed deputy-curator, and 

 took up his appointment in Calcutta in April 1869. 



In 1875 the new Museum was completed, and the 



p2 



