26 MEMOIR OF 



being thus brought forward to public notice, a se- 

 parate society was formed, by the unremitting perse- 

 verance of Mr Kadermacher, who may be called the 

 founder of the institution established at Batavia. 



" On the 24th of April 1778, this society was duly 

 established, under the authority of Government, and, 

 after the example of Haerlem, took for its motto, 

 * The public utility! On its first organization, the 

 Society consisted of 192 members, the Governor- 

 General being chief director, and members of the 

 High Regency directors. The Society selected as 

 objects of research and inquiry, whatever could be 

 useful to agriculture, commerce, and the welfare of 

 the colony; it encouraged every question relating to 

 natural history, antiquities, and the manners and 

 usages of the native inhabitants : and in order the 

 better to define the objects and contribute to their 

 accomplishment, a programme was from time to time 

 printed and circulated abroad." 



The Society v/as no sooner fully established, and 

 its proceedings generally known, than it received 

 from all quarters various acquisitions to its cabinet 

 and library. Mr Kadermacher himself presented 

 the Society with a convenient house, and eight cases 

 of valuable books, &c. ; and by the liberality of Mr 

 Bartto, it was enabled to form a botanical establish- 

 ment, in a garden presented by that gentleman. In 

 1779 the first volume of transactions was printed, 

 in 1780 the second, and the third in 1781 ; and be- 

 fore 1792 six volumes had appeared. At this pe- 



