XXX Annual Address. | February, 1908. 
absorption of gases, vapours and substances in solution by solids 
and amorphous substances ; while the memoir of Prof. Watson, on 
the fastness of the indigenous dyes of Bengal, treats, with thor ough- 
ness and minuteness, of a question of great practical interest to the 
industries of this count ‘yy. We had also a very suggestive 
paper by Prof. Cunningham and Babu Satis Chandra Mukherjee 
on the electric state of nascent gases. These were followed by 
notes from Prof, Roy and Babu Bidhu Bhusan Dutt and Babu 
terms to the first-rate work which is now carried on by some of 
professors and by their advanced students, and I am assured 
that the research work done here would be deemed creditable 
even in more advanced centres of learning. 
_ We are indebted to Mr. Hooper for his interesting paper on 
the composition of well waters in Hadramaut, which has been 
claimed by chemists as a research within their domain, acs b 
geoloyists as a paper which, undoubtedly, throws light on their 
special subject. In Zoology we had a series of papers from 
Dr. Annandale, in which he describes freshwater sponges in brackish 
water in the Gangetic delta. There are also otier papers by 
Dr, Annandale, Dr. - Gravel and Dr. Linstow, iene are of a highly 
technical characier, at I must not omit all mention of Dr, 
Mann’s paper on the diet of tea-gurden coolies in Upper Assam, 
which deals with a question of vreat interest and practical im- 
portance, and mnst be regarded as the first important contribution 
on a subject which requires careful attention. 
I stated at the outset that there has been, in recent years, a 
sous gecouie addition to our strength by the enrolment of medical 
‘rs, and the formation of a medical section of the Society, 
ee ey be permitted to add that I welcome the presence of the 
members of the medical profession, not merely from the point of 
view of the important contributions relating to medical topics 
which may be expected from tiem, but also from the point of view 
of researches into the history of Indian medicine, It must be 
conceded with some regret that the Society, in the past, 0 not 
done quite as much towards the: investigation of the history 
rogress of Indian medicine as it has done in other 
n 
inexplicable, the energies of our members, who have devoted 
themselves to philology and xntquitias, have been steadily kept 
away from the history of Indian medicine. It is true that, more 
than 70 years ago, the Society published an accurate edition of 
the great Sanskrit work on Indian medicine known as the Susrita, 
It is also true that in our own generation attempts were mnde 
twice to publish a reliable English version of the same work, but, 
although the undertaking was begun on each occasion by a 
distinsuished scholar, the attempt was unsuccessful, and no pro- 
gress worthy of any mention was made. It i is obvious, howe ever, 
that the wh field tor investiga- 
tion, Iam fo «ibly i of the truth of this observation by 
the ‘publication of an extremely valuable work on the medicine of 

