50 Address. [Feb. 



Before proceeding further I must not omit to remind you of 

 the obligations we are under to the officers of the Society, to whose 

 zeal and devotiou to the duties confided to them its successful working 

 is entirely due. I know from experience how heavily these duties some- 

 times press in addition to the daily official work in a trying climate. 

 Mr. Wood-Mason, the Natural History Secretary, and Dr. Hoernle, the 

 Philological Secretary, have both devoted all their energies to the editing 

 of their respective parts of the Journal. It is a matter of great regret that 

 Mr. Pedler found himself obliged by the strain of official duties to give 

 up the office of Treasurer which he had so efficiently held since May 

 1887. Still more recently our excellent and hardworking General 

 Secretary, Mr. H. M. Percival, has had to resign his post for the same 

 reason. The Treasurership was held for a short time after Mr. Pedler's 

 resignation by Mr. A. Simson, aud now Dr. W. King has kindly taken it 

 over. To all these gentlemen and to our Vice-President, and late Presi- 

 dent, Mr. B. T. Atkinson, I desire to offer my warm personal acknow- 

 ledgments for the help freely afforded me in presiding over the affairs 

 of the Society, and I would also ask you to pass a cordial vote of thanks 

 to them for their services to the Society during the past year. (The 

 vote was passed unanimously) . It was a great pleasure to see my old 

 friend our Vice-President, and former President, Paja Rajendralala 

 Mitra, the Nestor of the Society, recently among us once more, and I 

 trust we may hope for his entire restoration to health. 



As already announced, Mr. 0. Little, who will be balloted for as a 

 new member this evening, has very kindly consented to undertake the 

 duties of General Secretary. 



Following the good custom of many of my predecessors, I pro- 

 pose to give a brief review of the progress of Science and Oriental 

 literature in this country and its nearer border-lands during the past 

 year. Such a review must, I know, be very incomplete and imperfect, 

 owing to my inacquaintance with many of the subjects treated on, as 

 well as to the large number of subjects, each of which would give good 

 material for an address by itself, and the vastness of the area with 

 which we have to deal. For we have not only to show our fellow- 

 workers in other countries what is being done here ; but to many of our 

 members residing in other parts of India, far from libraries of reference, 

 it will be interesting to know what is being done elsewhere in connection 

 with subjects coming within the scope of our enquiries. It is also well, I 

 think, that we should periodically endeavour to sum up the progress we 

 are making in carrying out the intentions of our founder, and continuing 

 the labours of the many distinguished workers in the field of literature 



