14 Prospectus of an Indian Academy, 8fc. 



responsibility, nor want of confidence to confer it on the 

 other. Could the difficulties attending this point be sur- 

 mounted, it is evident that a Society would then be formed 

 the sole management of which would be vested in the hands 

 of men entirely devoted to its object. 



The object of the proposed Society would be to collect a 

 body of information regarding the natural history of the 

 country, and to concentrate the labours of our naturalists, 

 which have hitherto been interspersed throughout various 

 publications, in a manner to render it difficult to refer to 

 what really has been done. 



The evil of scattered publication is in India the difficulty 

 of obtaining books. If our naturalists for the want of any 

 independent publication exclusively devoted to their own 

 pursuits continue to send their communications to various 

 Journals, and Societies here and in Europe, they must neces- 

 sarily increase their own difficulties by the greater number of 

 books which they will require to refer to. In consequence 

 of this practice it already often happens, that to refer to a 

 single paper on natural history it is necessary to purchase a 

 volume of extraneous matter, and this evil must continue to 

 increase until naturalists possess publications exclusively de- 

 voted to their own pursuits. 



We have treated the subject of the proposed Society on 

 distinct grounds, and altogether independent of a Journal, 

 but we consider both to be indispensable to the advance- 

 ment of natural history, and doubt not we shall live to see 

 both flourish. The one as an independent advocate of truth, 

 and the organ of those who are interested in the progress 

 of natural history ; the other, a repository in which the finish- 

 ed papers of naturalists in India may go forth to the world 

 under the auspices of men practically acquainted either with 

 their merits, or their defects. 



