XiV Annual Report. [ February, 1908. 
not known. A fairly satisfactory explanation of the origin of in- 
numerable sub-castes out of the four original castes is given by 
Mr. Jackson, I.C.S., in his ‘‘ Note on the history of the Caste- 
system.” He says that India, before the arrival of the Muslims, 
was divided into numerous distinct kingdoms governed by kings, 
who followed divergent customs. A caste that lived in an area so 
extensive as to be subject to more than one political jurisdiction, 
naturally split up into sections, the customs of which differed in 
detail, owing to the divergent decisions of the kin ngs to whom they 
were subjec ct. The Kanaujiya, Maithil, and other sections of the 
Brahmans are said to have arisen in this way. ‘Chronology of 
Indian authors,” by Babu Nilmani Chakravarti, is a useful paper, 
adding numerous important dates to Mabel Duff's Chronology 
of India; it is compiled from an examination of many volumes 
of so published Reports and Catalogues of Sanskrit MSS. 
A research into the origin and development of Arithmetical 
Retain is ade by Mr. Kaye in his “ Notes on Indian Mathe- 
tics.” From a comparison of the Hindu, Arabic, and Greek 
Pee of Arithmetic, it is concluded that the modern arithmetical 
notation is not of Indian origin, and that ¢ the 10th century. A. 
is the earliest period when Indian inscriptions were dated in the 
figures of the modern (place-value) notation. 
Mathematics and the Natural Sciences, 
The Society has reason to be satisfied with its work in the 
Natural Sciences. Its Journal, for 1907, contained 38 papers— 
almost all from members—and it issued two memoirs. The papers 
are almost of the same number as in 1906, but the contributors are 
more, being 23 against 18 Many of the papers have been illus- 
trated by means of plates and chip in the text such as Calcutta 
is now easily able to produce. The Council would like members to 
recognise that the Society’s saiblioatih are really prompt and 
that the circulation of the Journal is growing wider and wider. 
They earnestly desire that a greater number of members should 
bec 7 contributors. 
In Mathematics, the Society has published Professor D, N. 
Mallik’s Magnetic Induction in Spheroids, and Mr. G. R. Kaye’s 
—— in the Origin of the Arithmetic Notation as mentioned 
os Physical Chemistry the Society has published Dr. Morris 
Travers’ paper On the Absorption of Gases, Vapours and Sub- 
stances in solution by Solids and Amorphous Substances, and also a 
sugyestive “preliminary paper” by Professor J. A Cunningham 
and Babu Satis Ohaudes Mukerjee ou the Electric State of Nascent 
Gases. 
In Inorganic Chemistry, the Society has published notes by 
Professor P. C. Ray, Babu Bidhu Bhusan Dutta and Babu Pan- 
chanan Neogi. In Applied Chemistry, the Society has published a 
memoir by Mr. E. R. Watson on the Fastness of the Indigenous 
Dyes of Bengal. 
