460 



Falconer, of the Bengal Medical Service, for their Geological re- 

 searches, and their discoveries in Fossil Zoology in the Sub-Hima- 

 layan Mountains. 



The following Is the Report of the Committee appointed to ex- 

 amine into the state of the Library and Museum. 



REPORT of the Committee appointed to examine and report on the 

 state of the Museums and Library. 



Museums. 

 In consequence of the uninterrupted pressure of other business 

 during the Session of the Society, and the urgent recommendation of 

 the Council that the Curator should be absent during the recess with 

 a view to the reestablishment of his health, no further progress has 

 been made this year in the arrangement of the collections. The plan 

 of arrangement, so far as relates to the British collection, has been 

 stated on various occasions, and is sufficiently known; but your 

 Committee have thought it desirable, in order to render the Fellows 

 more conversant with the nature and extent of the Foreign collections, 

 to subjoin a table exhibiting the geographical divisions which, for 

 the present, have been adopted, and the number of drawers occupied 

 by these divisions respectively. 



The duplicate specimens in the Society's possession are numerous, 

 and the number is constantly increasing. The Committee suggest 

 the propriety of distributing these, as soon as can conveniently be 

 done, among Foreign Institutions. Were the duplicates from the 

 tertiary, cretaceous, oolitic, carboniferous, and older sytems, which 

 are already arranged to a certain extent, transmitted to different 

 Foreign Museums, situated in the vicinity of those formations re- 

 spectively, they would be most valuable as objects of comparison. It 

 is in this way only that the geographical boundaries of fossil species 

 can be satisfactorily determined. 



The important department of organic remains, though large, is 

 still very defective. 



It will be necessary, during the present year, to provide two tiers 

 of additional cabinets, comprising42 drawers, the cost of which is es- 

 timated at 35 Z. ; and the Committee would further suggest to the con- 

 sideration of the Council, the propriety of putting up an additional 

 glass case in the hall, which will occasion an expense of about 12/. 



The principal donations to the Museum, since the last Anniver- 

 sary, are as follows : 



1. Extensive collections of the remains of the Mastodon, Elephant, 

 Rhinoceros, and other animals from the Sewalik Hills, collected 

 and presented by Capt.Cautley. Of the importance of this dona- 

 tion, the Committee are not called upon to offer any opinion, the 

 Council having marked their sense of its value by awarding to 

 Capt. Cautley one of the WoUaston Medals of the year. 



2. From Col. Sykes a series of Cutch Fossils, collected for the So- 

 ciety at his suggestion. In a paper read during a former Session 

 on some specimens brought to England by Capt. Smee^ the close 



