Proceedings of the Asiatic Society of Bengal. 149 



mittee no doubt evince the same intimate knowledge of the practice 

 of other institutions, as in the instances already referred to." 



It does not appear to have occurred to the Committee, that the 

 Curator being a naturalist can have little correspondence not con- 

 nected with the 'Museum, so that to comply with this rule he should 

 require his friends to address him through the Secretary. 



" The Committee say, ' our collection of minerals is in utter chaos,' a 

 statement which is not the fact, for they are all arranged ; a Committee 

 that would lay down rules for the direction of a Curator, ought to know 

 the difference between minerals and rocks. ' Though rich,' say this 

 Committee ' in anonymous specimens, valuable in themselves as illustra- 

 tions of abstract mineralogy, but devoid of interest in a geological or 

 geographical light, owing to the neglect with which they have been 

 treated, &c.' We can easily understand that the Committee may have 

 been ignorant of the names of many minerals in the collection, espe- 

 cially as they do not seem to know the difference between minerals and 

 rocks, but it does not follow that such minerals are 'anonymous;' in 

 fact, the use of the term as the Committee have applied it, evinces a 

 total want of information on the subject; a mineral is not anonymous 

 because it is without a label, any more than a man would be so when 

 without a card in his pocket, with his name written on it : a person 

 acquainted with either minerals or men will always know them whether 

 labelled or not. Yet this is the Committee who are ready to take the 

 management of the Museum into their own hands, and as they say 

 themselves, examine the claims of such candidates as may offer for 

 the Curatorship within a period of three months ! 



"'It appears,' they say, 'that the first object of the Society in 

 remodelling the Museum, should be to form a grand collection 

 of minerals and fossils, illustrative of the Geology, Geography, 

 and Palaeontology of our British Indian possessions.' But we 

 are at a loss to know how minerals and fossils could illustrate 

 Geography, and had always supposed that Palaeontology was mere- 

 ly a branch of Geology ; but perhaps the Committee intend to re- 

 model the sciences, as well as the Museum. ' A few existing minerals ; ' 

 (could there be any other kind? This is the report of a Committee 

 of Papers of a learned Society, claiming an authority quite unprece- 

 dented over the labours of others, it is therefore of importance before 

 their claims be sanctioned, to see how far the scientific character of 

 the Society would be safe in their hands) ' and some superb fossils 

 in our Museum are available for this object,' i. e., for making a grand 

 collection; but as the things in question are already in the Museum, 

 they are not merely 'available' for the object in view, but constitute 

 so much of the object itself already accomplished. 



" The Committee continue, 'While waiting for these additions to 

 our collection, he,' the Curator, ' should proceed to label those already 

 in our possession.' It is within the recollection of the Society that 



