eexxxii Proceedings of the Asiatic Soc. of Bengal. [N.S., XVII, 
tions, our members as a body have not yet taken much 
practical interest in this branch of the Society’s activities ”’ 
(Journal of the Bihar and Orissa Research Society {1920}, Vol. VI, 
p. 469). 
It is refreshing to turn from this disheartening account 
© comparative failure of scientific so- 
cieties to organize bands of ethusiastic work- 
ers in Indian Ethnology, to another phase of 
anthropological work in India,—that of the compilation of sys- 
tematic catalogues of the castes and tribes of each Province, 
and collecting and consolidating all available information about 
them whether occurring in published books, Reports and maga- 
zine-articles or in unpublished official records. The compara- 
tive success that has attended this branch of anthropological 
Handbooks on 
Castes and Tribes. 
either of funds or of workers. Such defects and inaccuracies 
as are found to exist in some of the Government publications 
on Castes and Tribes appear to be due to the fact that materi- 
als were sometimes taken, without verification, from reports 
called for from Police Darogas, School Sub-Inspectors and 
other subordinate officers or private individuals who did not 
possess either the necessary equipment for the investigation 
of the questions referred to them for inquiry nor the desire 
or the incentive to make careful and intelligent inquiries and 
to appreciate the significance of all the questions put and the 
answers elicited. Every regular field-worker in Anthropology 
will understand the risks of error that such a course necessarily 
involves. 
the Presidency of Bengal,—‘: We are of opinion that a statis- 
tical survey of the country under the immediate authority of 
your Presidency, would be attended with much utility; we 
therefore recommend proper steps to be taken for carrying the 
same into execution.’’ ‘The Court further directed that Dr. 
Hamilton) was appointed by the Governor-General in Council 
with a monthly allowance of sicca rupees fifteen hundred 
exclusive of his usual pay and batta, and supplied with a staff 
of ‘efficient learned assistants, draftsmen, etc.,” to carry 
through the work. 
