PREFACE. IX 



and the discovery of inscriptions in Arabia, have been oblig- 

 ingly communicated by the Bengal and Bombay Governments. 

 The train of individual discoveries, physical and antiquarian, 

 has progressed without intermission : most interesting inscrip- 

 tions and coins have been brought to light, and illustrated. 



Fossil animals, of new and extraordinary species, have followed 

 the discovery of Cuvierian genera, themselves but recently made 

 known, in the Sivalik range : the history of the Malayan states, 

 accounts of various sects, of ancient ruins, of Buddhist cosmogony, 

 and of Tibetan works, are among the subjects of the present 

 volume ; and it is but fair to state, that materials for a new 

 volume of the Quarto Researches have been collecting, and 

 printing, at the same time with the contents of the Society's 

 Journal. 



Contributions in Meteorology this year have seemingly been 

 wanting : they have however been received regularly from vari- 

 ous quarters, and, now that the year is completed, will be made 

 use of in a condensed form. 



Criticism of Scientific Works published in India has indeed 

 been neglected, and that during a period when the press has 

 been unusually prolific. This department of labour, as far as 

 regards the bringing to public notice new works, has been am- 

 ply fulfilled by the daily press ; and beyond this it would be 

 hardly safe to extend the province of criticism in this country, 

 where the Editor cannot conceal his own fallibility under the 

 disguise of an anonymous review. 



Want of space and want of leisure must, in the last place, 

 be pleaded as an excuse for the absence of retrospective ana- 

 lyses of the progress of the Sciences in Europe. The Editor 

 hopes to obtain the aid of friends whose attention will be particu- 

 larly engaged in pursuing these branches of knowledge in the 

 ensuing year ; but all official functionaries in India are so fully 

 occupied, that it is hard to expect from them work of superero- 

 gation. It is some consolation, that the Indian reader being 

 himself somewhat in the same predicament, will not have 

 time to discover the blemishes and blanks of our amateur 

 periodical. 



