1862.] Proceedings of the Asiatic Society. 313 



cords of this sort kept up which are of considerable value and might 

 be made much more so with a very little arrangement. Thus a 

 register of rain fall is kept, we believe, in every district in India, 

 and has been so kept for a very long series of years. If made with 

 fair care these records might be invaluable in a scientific point of view. 



Again the medical officers of the Government, all over the country, 

 are expected to keep certain meteorological registers in their hospi- 

 tals. We have no doubt that these records are kept by many medi- 

 cal officers with great care and accuracy. But on the other hand it 

 is not to be denied that a large number of them are made with no 

 sufficient attention. Further they are not truly susceptible of com- 

 parison one with another from the very different ways in which they 

 are kept ; and as it is impossible to distinguish the good from the 

 bad, the value of the whole of them is very much diminished if not 

 altogether lost, 



Lastly, we would observe that the very essence of the value of 

 such observations is, that they should be brought into relation one 

 with another. 



If when made they are only to be put into a cupboard, they had 

 far better not be made at all. If it be worth the trouble to make 

 them, it is worth the trouble to use them ; and using them means 

 reviewing them, as a whole, in a regular systematic and scientific 

 manner. 



We do not conceal from ourselves that the difficulties in the way 

 of such a methodic system of meteorological observation are great, 

 but this is no reason for not attempting to overcome them. 



On the whole, considering the circumstances of the country, and 

 the fact that the great majority of observers will commonly be offi- 

 cers of the Government, what seems to us the course most likely to 

 have a useful effect would be for the Government to constitute a 

 Board of visitors of the Calcutta Observatory, for the purpose of 

 making suggestions on this and kindred subjects. The difficulty of 

 finding any individual with the scientific knowledge, theoretical 

 and practical, necessary to make him a perfectly safe guide in such 

 matters is acknowledged to be almost insuperable even in England. 

 In India the thing is perfectly impossible, and the pressure of busi- 

 ness on most persons interested in science is a further ground for 

 trusting rather to a Board than to. any individual adviser. 



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