116 Proceedings of Societies. [March, 



VII. — Proceedings of Societies. 

 1. — Asiatic Society. 

 Wednesday, 7 th March, 1832. 

 The Hon'ble Sir C. E. Grey, President, in the chair. 



The President announced to the meeting the request of the Editor of the Gleanings 

 of Science to continue that publication under the designation of the Journal of the 

 Asiatic Society. 



Resolved, that permission be granted, to be continued as long as the publication is 

 under the charge of one or both the Secretaries of the Society. 



Read a letter from Mr. Goodhull, presenting drawing of a fossil shell. 



Read a letter from Captain Mitchell, forwarding to the Museum a Bish Copra in 

 spirits. 



Read a note from Baboo Radhacant Deb, presenting a young Pigeon with two 

 heads, for the Museum. 



The Meteorological Registers for November and December were presented by the 

 Surveyor General. 



Mr. F. Royle displayed to the Society a portion of the collections made by 

 him while superintendent of the Seh&ranpiir Botanic Garden, in the various 

 branches of Natural History, and proceeded to illustrate the objects of his 

 researches by a general review of the climate, the geology, the botany, and the 

 zoological productions of the part of the country he had just quitted. 



Such of his remarks as had not solely referenee to the objects under inspection 

 by the Society, have been selected for publication in the present number : Upon 

 the termination of his interesting address the President rose, and moved the thanks 

 of the Society in the following words. 



" I am sure that I only express what is felt by the Society, when I say that 

 we greatly regret we have nothing better to offer to Mr. Royle than a vote of 

 thanks in return for the gratification and instruction he has afforded us, or 

 whereby we can signify the opinion which we entertain of his meritorious ser- 

 vices in the cause of science. Other collections of greater magnitude have gone 

 home from India. In the department of botany we know how vast and precious 

 a freight was borne across the sea by our zealous and indefatigable friend Dr, 

 Wallich, and with how much admiration the display of it has been hailed in 

 Europe. Other cabinets of great merit, and, perhaps, more complete than this 

 of Mr. Royle's in single branches of Natural History, have been formed of late 

 years ; but I am not aware of any, certainly not of any which has been freely 

 submitted to the examination of our Society, which has been of equal variety, 

 curiosity, and interest with that which is now open before us. Here are new 

 acquisitions in the zoology, ornithology, entomology, and geology of northern 

 India and the Himalaya ; and in the scientific observations by which we have 

 heard them explained and illustrated this evening, we find an error of the learned 

 and celebrated founder of our Society corrected ; familiar and household words 

 of the existing races of India and Persia identified with the terms of the Materia 

 Medica of Dioscorides, and the first annunciation of important geological 

 discoveries by a friend of Mr. Royle's in continuation of his own researches, which 

 promise to bring the fossils of India, so recently supposed to possess none of 

 those primaeval records, into curious and interesting comparison with the vast 

 stores of Europe and America. 



