42 President's Address. [Feb. 



on the " Prosody of the Persians." Among the several District Gazetteers, 

 I have to mention the interesting " Memoir of Mathura District" by Mr. 

 F. S. Growse which contains exhaustive notes on the Hindu and Muhamma- 

 dan antiquities of the sacred town and its neighbourhood. Nor must I for- 

 get the great numismatic undertaking of the day, which Messrs. Triibner 

 and Co. have set on foot, I mean the publication, under the editorship of 

 Mr. E. Thomas, of the " International Marsden." Scholars of all countries 

 and several members of our Society are to contribute to this comprehensive 

 work, which is to contain the medallic history of the whole East. 



While on coins, I would ask those who collect coins with no specific 

 object, and there are many such in this country, to give attention to the 

 important part coins play in throwing light on Indian History. With- 

 in the last few months you will find that one coin under Mr. Blochmann, 

 our Secretary, brought to light a forgotten, and in the present age, unknown 

 ting, while another accidentall}'- dug up in a field, cleared up a difiiculty of 

 three years in the date of another reign. These I know are only examples 

 that come home to us, but they clearly confirm what Prinsep, Thomas, Cun- 

 ningham and others urge, that coins are the basis and indeed in many cases 

 the beginning and the end of Indian History, and I would therefore call 

 upon all such collectors as cannot read their coins, to lend them to the Soc- 

 iety to be read, figured and to be recorded, to add to the rich store already 

 contained in the pages of this part of our Journal.* 



Passing on to Part II of our Journal, which is devoted to the Natural 

 Sciences. 



The three parts of the Journal already published and the fourth which 

 will appear in a few days, are illustrated by 19 Plates in all. Dr. F. 

 Stoliczka has given us another important memoir with valuable anatomical 

 notes on Asiatic land MoUusca ; notes on some Malayan Amphibia and Rep- 

 tilia, and on the Indian species of Thelyphonus ; a contribution towards a 

 monograph of the Indian species of Passalidae, an interesting family of Co- 

 leopterous insects (which had been already monographed by Dr. Kaup) ; and 

 notes on Andamanese and Nicobarese Reptiles. Mr. Wood-Mason has de- 

 scribed a new and interesting genus and species of decapod Crustaceans re- 

 markable for being totally destitute of functional organs of vision, like the 

 famous Cray -fish of the Mammoth-Cave and several allied forms of Crustacea 

 recently discovered by the " Challenger." He has also contributed a descrip- 

 tion of a remarkable new genus and species of Pycnogonida ; the first part of 

 a memoir on the Phasmidse ; a note on some species of the same family of 

 Orthopterous insects, and a description of a new genus of Land-Crabs from the 



* I may here note a collection of Sassanian Coins, 547 in number, that have fallen into 

 ray hands ; these coins will doubtless give great assistance in the work Mr. Thomas is 

 engaged on. They are now in the hands of the Hon. E. C. Bayley. 



