88 I.8.C. Proceedings of the Ninth [N.S., XVIHII, 
improbable that the youngest and poorest of the scientific 
departments under the Government of India would arise from 
the mud like Pharaoh’s lean kine and swallow its more prosper- 
ous brethren. However effective such replies may be for the 
moment, the necessity for them does not tend to edification. 
One branch of science may be poorer in loaves and fishes than 
another, but all are equal. 
oology is so closely connected with other branches of 
biology, and so dependent in the last resort on geology, chem- 
istry and physics, that in my own work IJ find it frequently 
necessary to apply to members of other scientific depart- 
ments for special information. My experience has been that 
such information is always given in a most ungrudging and 
to assist all scientific men in their work, and especially in their 
research ; but to the gods, alas, it has seemed otherwise. The 
gods of Olympus led a free and joyous life, feasting on nectar 
and ambrosia: in files and official etiquette the gods of the 
Himalaya have found more congenial fare. A witty Chairman 
of the Trustees of the Indian Museum, in which four Imperial 
survey departments are concerned, once remarked that the 
chief difficulty in its administration was that the parts were so 
much greater than the whole. Hypertrophy of the depart- 
mental consciousness is a disease to which we heads of scienti- 
fic departments are by no means immune; a disease, moreover, 
which the Board of Scientific Advice, despite its zeal in pre- 
venting “‘ the overlapping of functions,” has failed to cure. 4m 
placing zoology on a sound basis in India individual effort 
alone is of any avail, but the effort though individual must be 
unselfish, it must not be inspired by any kind of bitterness or 
self-seeking. We must realize with a sigh that the intelligence 
of a committee is often much lower than that of its least 
intelligent member. 
Even a committee, however, is preferable to individual 
patronage. 1 am of the opinion that private donations to 
absolutely free. By the time of Alexander, however, ne 
intellectual light of Greece was fading out, and democracy. the 
m i we 
