'340 



Proceedings of the Asiatic Society. 



[No. 3, 



The Council reported that they had elected Mr. H. B. Medlicott 

 and Mr. Oldham to the Council in the place of Colonel Dickens, who 

 had resigned, and Colonel Thuillier who had been elected, but had 

 declined to accept the office at present. 



They further reported that the following gentlemen had been elected 

 to the" Committees : 



Meteorological Committee. — Colonel H. L. Thuillier and T. Martin 

 Esq. 



Natural History Committee. — Lieutenant E. C. Beavan. 



Finance Committee. — H. D. Sandeman, Esq. 



They also reported that they had appointed Mr. A. Carlyle as 

 Officiating Curator of the Society on a salary of Es. 250 per mensem, 

 on the express understanding that the appointment should be a tem- 

 porary one. 



Communications were received — 



1. From E. Thomas, Esq., a paper on Ancient Indian Weights. 



2. From W. Theobald, Esq., Jr., a paper entitled "Observations 

 on Certain Strictures of Mr r H. F. Blanford on my paper on the distri- 

 bution of Indian Gasteropoda in Journal, No. 289, Page 69." 



3. From Dr. A. Bastian, a copy of a translation of the oldest 

 stone inscription found in Siam, 



4. From Baboo Gropinath Sen, an abstract of the Hourly Meteo- 

 rological Observations taken at the Surveyor General's Office for the 

 month of March last. 



The papers of Dr. Bastian and Mr. Theobald were read. # 

 Mr. Blanford in reply to Mr. Theobald's remarks, admitted that 

 Mr. Theobald had very properly corrected him on the question of 

 authority, and that he must therefore modify his statement somewhat 

 carelessly made on a former occasion that no Naturalist of any emi- 

 nence held the view that species were of sporadic origin. He did not 

 think, however, that this correction made any material difference as to 

 the real point at issue, viz. whether there were any good grounds 

 for inferring that one and the same species had commenced its existence 

 at more than one centre. Mr. Blanford had not seen the work quoted 

 by Mr. Theobald, but if Mr. Theobald's quotations fairly represented 

 the arguments for sporadic origin, he thought they were quite in- 

 conclusive, and the facts adduced in support offered nothing new or 

 * These will appear in due course in the body of the Journal* 



