52 Asiatic Society. [Jan. 



his due, and I have only to regret that I am not yet provided with the materials 

 for a sketch of his short but eminently useful career. 



By departure to Europe, our loss of members has been still more severe, but it 

 may be hardly fair to consider that a deprivation which but changes the scene and 

 sphere of their exertions and utility. 



I have purposely refrained from alluding to the labours of a more exalted nature, 

 which have brightened the proceedings of the past year, because I consider it to 

 be the privilege of the highest officer of the Society to review the objects and pro- 

 gressive success of the institution over which he presides. Severe indisposition 

 has unfortunately placed it out of the power of our President to restore the lauda- 

 ble custom of an annual address on the present occasion ; which is the more to be 

 regretted, as this is the jubilee anniversary of the day on which the illustrious founder 

 of the Society was elected its first President. The close of that eventful period finds 

 the parent Society shorn of all its exclusive honors, and forming but one, perhaps 

 the humblest, of the numerous bodies associated in Europe and in India, for the 

 prosecution of " inquiries into the history, antiquities, the natural productions, arts, 

 sciences, and literature of Asia." The tree which was auspiciously planted by 

 the great Sir William Jones, to use his own expression, has long since produced its 

 fairest blossoms, and its most exquisite fruit. It has spread its roots in distant 

 lands, where the arts of cultivation are better understood, and the value of its pro- 

 duce can be more skilfully developed ; but we must not forget that we here assem- 

 ble under the shade of the original tree, and that however decayed the parent stock 

 may have become, while its more vigorous branches are taking root in France 

 Germany, and England, — still it is to the Asiatic Society of Bengal that belongs 

 with propriety the motto assumed by one of its illustrious scions, " Quot rami tot 

 arbores." 



Library. 



The following books were presented : 



Transactions of the Royal Asiatic Soeiety, 2nd part of the 3rd volume, new 

 series, and the Proceedings of the 10th Annual Meeting of the Society, with the 

 Reports of the Council, Auditors, and Committee of Correspondence, held on Sa- 

 turday, May 11th, 1833. — By the Society. 



Proceedings of the Geological Society, Nos. 30 and 31, with a list of its mem- 

 bers for 1833. — By the Society. 



Garcin De Tassy, Appendice aux Rudimens de la Langue Hindoustani. — By the 

 Author. 



Marcoz, Erreur des Astronomes et des Geometres. — By the Author. 

 Journal Asiatique, Nos. 59 and 66. — By the Asiatic Society of Paris. 

 Journal of Medical Science, No. 1, vol. 1st. — By Messrs. J. Grant, and J. T. 

 Pearson, Editors. 



Meteorological Register for December, 1833. — By the Surveyor General. 

 The following works received from the Oriental Translation Fund of 

 Great Britain and Ireland. 



No. 414, Atkinson's Customs and Manners of the Women in Persia, and their 

 domestic superstitions : 



Shea's Translation of Mirkhond's History of the early Kings of Persia. 

 Travels of Macarius, parts 3rd and 4th, translated by F. C. Balfour. 



