1884.] Appointment of Mr. Pargiter as General Secretary. 115 



plies to further enquiries made by Mr. Locke, for whom Dr. M'Cann 

 was officiating. The report appeared in August 1883. It was favour- 

 ably reviewed in Nature, and is, I believe, admitted to be a work of per- 

 manent value. Considering the distracting nature of Dr. M'Cann's 

 various occupations, and that the only special assistance he received was 

 that of a clerk employed for two months in making abstracts of the 

 correspondence, it is a marvel that he was able to complete so difficult a 

 task in so short a time. 



During the Calcutta International Exhibition he was in charge of the 

 Educational section ; and he was subsequently entrusted with the duty 

 of arranging the specimens of the Economic Museum in the permanent 

 annexe of the Indian Museum in Chowringhee. He had lately assumed 

 the editorship of the Calcutta Review, which would no doubt in his 

 hands have maintained or perhaps increased its high reputation. But 

 this hope with many others has been frustrated by his untimely death. 



Dr. M'Cann was very successful as a teacher. He possessed a remark- 

 able power of popularizing a subject. He delivered one or two admira- 

 ble lectures in the Bethune Society and before the Muhammadan Litera- 

 ry Society. It has been remarked that in lecturing before the latter 

 Society, he was by no means disconcerted by the necessity of having his 

 lecture rendered clause by clause into Urdu. Indeed his patience and 

 good temper were remarkable. It was due to the latter qualities quite 

 as much as to his Scientific ability that he was so much beloved by the 

 students of the Presidency College, who have recently held a meeting 

 for the purpose of erecting a memorial in his honour. 



Dr. M'Cann was no doubt a little over- worked for the two last 

 months of his life, during which he was engaged in arranging the col- 

 lections of the Economic Museum in the premises of the Indian Museum. 



On Friday the 20th of June he went to Raneegunge for change of 

 air. On Saturday the 21st he addressed a letter to a member of the 

 Society in which he said that he was sadly in need of rest, but expressed 

 a belief that two or three days' indolence would make him fit for work 

 again. In the night of Saturday he was seized with cholera and died in 

 the middle of the day on Sunday. 



The Council reported that Mr. F. E. Pargiter had been appointed 

 General Secretary, and Member of Council and Trustee of the Indian 

 Museum in place of Dr. H. W. M'Cann and that Major J. Waterhouse 

 had kindly offered to carry on the work pending Mr. Pargiter's accep- 

 tance. 



The Council further reported that Mr. Pargiter's acceptance has 

 been received. 



