148 Proceedings of the Asiatic Society of Bengal. 



Owen, may make use of the results the same as if they had been derived 

 from their own private specimens. 



" The Museum at the India House is placed entirely, I believe, in 

 the hands of its keeper, who may not only make such use of his des- 

 criptions of the objects contained in it as he conceives most likely 

 to promote the ends of science, but exhibit those objects when neces- 

 sary to the Societies of the Metropolis. 



" Can the Committee of Papers reconcile this, with the stipulations 

 they require from their Curator ? e. g. ' that all memoirs or papers* drawn 

 up by the Curators for publication, as well as plates, models, &c. on 

 subjects he may have investigated in the discharge of his duties, should 

 in the first instance be placed at the disposal of the Committee of 

 Papers ; also, that all proofs of such Papers pass through the inspec- 

 tion of the same body.' The reason assigned for this very modest 

 stipulation is perfectly ludicrous, and shows how unfit the Committee 

 is to legislate in such matters, namely, that of a '^y-leaf having 

 been prefixed without their knowledge or sanction to the last volume 

 of Transactions, although containing nothing from which the Commit- 

 tee would dissent, the precedent is one they are desirous of avoiding.' 



" The Committee of Papers should surely have been aware that it 

 is the Secretary, and not the Curator, who must be held answerable 

 for irregularities of this kind, and yet the odd remedy they would 

 apply is, that of depriving the Curator of the literary property that 

 every one has a right to enjoy in his own free labours. How that 

 could keep ' fly leaves' out of the Transactions, I am quite at a loss 

 to know. 



" As the Committee do not profess to think much of the elaborate 

 investigation of a group or family, we cannot be surprised that they 

 should not be disposed to encourage such a waste of time ; and hence 

 the clause preventing the removal of objects of Natural History from 

 the Museum. Why, it was only at the last Meeting of the British 

 Association, that Dr. Buckland announced the intention of Messrs. 

 Hutton and Henslow to continue the fossil flora of Great Britain, 

 and of their requiring ' the loan of specimens from the Geological 

 Society, which would be carefully returned after drawings had been 

 made of them.' 



" Again, the Committee require that all correspondence connected 

 with the Museum should pass through the Secretary's office, ' in con- 

 formity with the practice of all similar institutions.' Here the Com- 



* The only literary work a Curator is expected to perform in the execution of 

 his duty, is the preparation of a catalogue of the collection under his charge. 

 Whether that be a memoir or a. paper, I must leave to the legal learning of those 

 who would draw the distinction. Even with regard to a catalogue, I would advise 

 the Committee to imitate the Council of the Zoological Society of London, and 

 declare " that they do not hold themselves responsible for the nomenclature adopted, 

 and opinions expressed in that publication." 



