638 
NATURE 
[Oct. 29, 1885 
ture, an zzcrease instead of decrease at higher stations, He 
brings forward a long array of figures supporting this conclusion, 
especially for sunrise effects in 1883, as seen from Santis (2467 
metres), in North-East Switzerland, in the bend of the Rhine. 
Stations to the east—Munich (528 metres) and Hohen Peissen- 
berg (994 metres) are taken for observations on temperature and 
relative humidity. The last place is about 35 miles south-west 
of Munich ; both may be considered as beneath the sky region 
producing glows at Santis. As difference of temperature is the 
most decisive comparison, his tables are here reduced to a series 
showing the difference of Hohen Peissenberg returns from 
Munich, in degrees Centigrade. In some cases one or two 
other returns are also added, reduced in like manner. Wormad/y, 
allowing for difference of height, Hohen Peissenberg should 
register 2°°5 below Munich. 
The final set of observations refer to some of the earlier after- 
glows. The greater anomaly with greater elevation (increases 
of 5°°2, 10°°6, 12°°2, and 17°°1 respectively in the figures given) 
is very suggestive. The reason of the non-agreement in May 
has already been stated. 
Except the last, these observations refer to ordinary sunrise 
effects, but the only difference between them and the recent glows 
is considered to be that the latter occur by reflection at a higher 
level and in a more finely attenuated haze, thus giving the richer 
effects. The presence of such a haze with the glows was a 
matter of very common observation. 
The question, of course, requires further consideration, espe- 
cially with respect to observations of the recent glows. Besides 
this connection with a warm stratum of air, Prof. Kiessling finds 
another, almost as general, with barometric maxima, as was 
noticed with the similar phenomena in 1881. 
Referring, in his concluding paragraph, to the connection of 
the glows with the Krakatoa eruption, Prof. Kiessling writes 
that the thousand or so records of their geographical distribution, 
now in his hands, ‘‘ show a perfectly continuous spread of the 
anomalous glows, and of the diffraction phenomena of Bishop’s 
Ring dating from August 26, 1883, and spreading from the Straits 
of Sunda as a centre over the tropical and temperate zones.” 
J. EDMUND CLARK 
A CENTURY OF SCIENCE IN BENGAL 
I? was a happy idea of the Council of the Asiatic Society of 
Bengal to commemorate the completion of a century of the 
Society’s existence by publishing a review of the progress made 
and the services rendered to knowledge by the institution. The 
idea of a learned society composed of Europeans in India 
studying the country and communicating to each other at 
periodical meetings the results of their researches, arose 
first in the fertile brain of Sir William Jones, who was 
judge in the Supreme Court at Fort William, and who de- 
livered, on January 15,1784, to about thirty members of the 
European community of Calcutta, a ‘‘ Discourse on the Institu- 
tion of a Society for Inquiring into the History, Civil and 
Natural, the Antiquities, Arts, Sciences, and Literature of 
Asia.”’ As a result of this discourse, the ‘* Asiatick Society,” the 
parent of all such societies, was founded. Its motto, which is 
taken from Sir William Jones’s discourse here referred to, is 
this : ‘‘ The bounds of its investigations will be the geographical 
limits of Asia, and within these limits its inquiries will be 
extended to whatever is performed by man or produced by 
nature.” After many vicissitudes it has just completed its 
hundredth year, and the record of its work forms the large 
volume just mentioned. This is divided into three parts: first, 
a history of the Society, by Dr. Mitra; its work in archzology, 
history, and literature, by Dr. Heernle ; and the work in natural 
science, by Baboo P. N. Bose. The change which has come over 
the face of India in the course ofa century could hardly be better 
marked than by the fact that two out of the three parts into 
which the velume is divided—one of these being on natural 
science—are written by native gentlemen. In the history of the 
Society we notice that in 1808 a resolution was proposed by Dr. 
Hare and seconded by Dr. Leyden (frequently referred to in 
Lockhart's ‘‘ Life of Scott”), ‘* that a Committee be appointed 
for the purpose of physical investigations, the collection of facts, 
specimens, and correspondence with individuals whose situations 
in this country may be favourable for such discussions and in- 
vestigations.” It was then agreed to provide two committees— 
* “Centenary Review of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, 1784 to 1883.” 
~ Published by the Society, Calcutta. Thacker, Spink, and Co., 1885. 
one for science, the other for literature ; twenty years later, in 
1828, a committee was appointed ‘‘to promote geological re- 
searches, working under the rules then in force for the Physical 
Committee,” and at the same time the published 7yansactions of 
the Society were divided into two parts, one devoted to physical, 
the other to literary subjects. Nearly twenty years later the 
whole of the work of the Society was delegated to six com- 
mittees, one having charge of zoology and natural history, 
another of geology and mineralogy, and a third of meteorology 
and physics. The establishment of a museum did not occur to 
the founder, but curiosities were constantly coming in from 
members, and in 1796 it was proposed to give these a suitable 
house. In 1814 Dr. Wallich proposed the formation of a 
museum, and offered duplicates from his own collections, as 
well as his services in arranging it, and a museum was accord- 
ingly started. The story of the growth of the various sections 
of the Natural History Museum is told by Dr. Mitra. On 
the whole it is one of great progress, although financial 
difficulties beset the museum at first. But as soon as the 
Society became able to pay for scientific curators all went 
well. In 1865 the Society’s zoological, geological, and archzeo- 
logical collections were made over to the Government of India 
for the public museum in Calcutta. A writer in the Calcutta 
Review, speaking of the Society’s exertions for the establishment 
of the national museum, said: ‘‘ Had it done nothing else to 
promote science during the last ten years, it would have entitled 
itself to the gratitude of posterity for the vigour with which it 
has prosecuted to success a project fraught with so much public 
usefulness.” The earlier volumes of the Society’s 7ransactions, 
published unter the title ‘‘ Asiatick Researches,” created a sen- 
sation in the literary and scientific world in Europe. A French 
translation was speedily published, with notes on the scientific 
portions by no lesser hands than Cuvier, Lamarck, Delambre, 
and Olivier. Of the work of the Society in p-eserving Sanskrit 
MSS., in translating and publishing various works from the 
native languages, and other valuable services to literature, Dr. 
Mitra speaks at length. Amongst the publications, apart from 
the papers, we notice many of scientific interest, such as 
catalogues of various sections of the museum, of the mammals 
and birds of Burmah, of Indian lepidoptera, besides translations 
of numerous works of Hindoo science. In summing up at the 
conclusion of his historical sketch the benefits conferred on India 
and the world by the Society during its hundred years of exist- 
ence, Dr. Mitra sums up its scientific work (apart from papers, 
and published volumes above referred to) thus: ** It got up an 
archeological and ethnological museum of considerable extent, 
a geological museum rich in meteorites and Indian fossils, and a 
zoological museum all but complete as regards the avifauna of 
India.” 
The long review of the work of the Society in natural science 
is, as already mentioned, written by Baboo Bose. His method 
is to take the various branches of science in succession, such as 
mathematical and physical science, genlogy, zoology, botany, geo- 
graphy, ethnology, and chemistry, and to describe under sub-heads 
the papers on these subjects contributed to the 7yamsactions of the 
Society, together with a brief biographical sketch of the more 
celebrated or prolific authors. At the end we get a classified 
index of all the scientific papers, an alphabetical list according 
to the author’s names being given at the conclusion of the first 
part. Amongst the latter we notice many whose names are 
familiar as contributors to NATURE. In the early years of the 
Society, and down to 1828, the scientific contributions to the 
Society’s Proceedings were almost wholly connected with some 
branch of pure or mixed mathematics, for most of the men who 
went out to India, especially in the scientific branches of the 
military service, had been well grounded in this subject. The 
section on the investigations into the mathematical science of the 
Hindoos is of great interest. Sir William Jones put before the 
Society from the outset the object of studying these sciences, 
and he set the example himself, but the initial difficulty was to 
find any native capable of assisting him. Baboo Bose records 
that, although ample stipends were offered by Sir William Jones 
to any Hindoo astronomer who could name in Sanskrit all the con- 
stellations which he would point out, and to any Hindoo physician 
who could bring him all the plants mentioned in Sanskrit books, 
he was assured by the Brahmans whom he had commissioned to 
search for such instructors, that no Pundit in Bengal even pre- 
tended to possess the knowledge he required. Geology and 
mineralogy flourished in the Society from the commencement, 
while zoology was at first unduly depressed and discouraged owing 
