250 European Science. [Mat, 



ernment in its surveys and records ; — when,we may say, the scale has been turned by 

 one whose official situation, and whose zeal in the cause, promise all the success that 

 human efforts can command. The scheme has been printed and circulated exten- 

 sively ; — it has been adopted in the Persian office : — and in school-books now print- 

 ing by the promulgator : while on the other hand all the learned oriental societies 

 and their members have ever pursued it, and willrejoice in lending it their renewed 

 support. The distinctions and marks introduced to discriminate the different 

 classes of letters (guttural, nasal, &c.) are judicious, and can hardly be esteemed a 

 departure from Sir William's scheme, while their occasional omission will be no 

 stumbling block to the scholar, whose memory will recur to the original orthogra- 

 phy of the word in the oriental character. We wish that all contributions to the 

 Journal could be made to conform to the system; but with Europeans this necessari- 

 ly presupposes an acquaintance with the native characters, otherwise the fallacious 

 ear must ever continue to guide the traveller's pen as he puts down names and places 

 in his note-book. The promulgation of our author's scheme will however now 

 serve the double purpose of teaching the European alphabet to the natives, while 

 it makes theirs known to us in return. That it will have the further effect of dis. 

 placing the Nagari and Persian alphabets as expected by the originator, is a 

 point of which the discussion may be safely postponed for a few hundred years I 

 It is not contended that existing knowledge can or ought to be suppressed ; — that 

 during the transition period, books are not to be furnished in every type for which 

 there is a demand ; — but it is assumed that the superiority of the reformed system 

 will be gradually perceived, and that " the native alphabets, retiring before the Ro-f 

 man, and being naturally displaced by its incumbent and increasing weight, will 

 eventually without violence or alarm, disappear from off the land." 



We feel no disposition to contend against the speculative possibility : the question 

 requires too many concurrent data, to be made the subject of rational argument : — ■ 

 and as to the abstractadvantages of an universal alphabet,they will be as readily grant- 

 ed by all men as those of an universal language. — All we would maintain is, that 

 efforts should not be relaxed in spreading the blessings of education through the 

 medium of the native languages and the native alphabets, in anticipation of the 

 sudden and miraculous substitution of a type utterly foreign to the vast majority 

 of the population. 



XII. — European Science. 



Remarks on the Report of the First and Second Meetings (1831 and 1832) of the 

 British Association for the Advancement of Science, By D. Butter, M. D. } Sur- 

 geon, Bengal Establishment* 



Four years ago, Babbage and Brewster sounded the alarm of "British science in 

 danger !" and well have the philosophers of England responded to the summons. 

 The recent publication of this admirable report will constitute an important era in 

 our history : it is indeed imposssible to calculate the full results of this organiza- 

 tion of the scientific strength of the country. The plan adopted, of publishing an 

 account, by the most competent associate, of the recent history and actual state of 

 each department of science, is a signal boon conferred upon its admirers in all parts 

 of the world, more especially upon residents in the more distant parts of the 

 empire, where the original sources of such information are inaccessible. The 

 peculiar excellence of these treatises consists in their shewing, upon good autho- 

 rity, and up to a recent date, the exact points where knowledge terminates and 



