X 



602 



Proceedings of the Asiatic Society, 



[No. 5, 



attention, and are not susceptible of comparison one with the other 

 from the very different ways in which they are kept, the value of the 

 whole is very much diminished if not altogether lost, owing to the 

 impossibility of distinguishing the good from the bad. It was further 

 observed that the very essence of the value of such observations is, 

 that they should be brought in relation one with the other, and that 

 this must be done in a regular, systematic, and scientific manner. It 

 was therefore suggested that a Board of the leading scientific men in 

 India should be appointed by Government to make suggestions on 

 this and kindred subjects ; and it was conceived that the suggestions 

 of a Board so constituted would be received with thankfulness by 

 Government and all individual observers, and that such recommend- 

 ations would practically carry with them sufficient weight, to give 

 that spirit and unity of method to all meteorological observation which 

 is so entirely wanting at present, and which is so essential to any real 

 progress in the science and its practical application. The Council, in 

 presenting this report, requested the authority of the Society to address 

 Government in accordance therewith ; which authority, after an inter- 

 esting and animated discussion, was formally accorded. 



A letter, dated 20th June 1862, was therefore addressed to Govern- 

 ment, recommending that a Meteorological Committee should be consti- 

 tuted by Government, on the plan of the Meteorological Committee 

 of the Board of Trade in London, for the advancement of Meteorological 

 Science. In this letter the special importance of Meteorological 

 information in this country was strongly insisted on. " The terrific 

 hurricanes that from time to time have swept over the Sea of Bengal, 

 causing the most calamitous destruction of property in shipping, and 

 carrying death almost to the entire population of whole districts that 

 have been submerged by the storm- wave," were quoted as well-known 

 facts ; and it was predicted (a prediction the disastrous fulfilment of 

 which is fresh in the recollection of us all), that such storms would 

 surely be repeated in the future. The horrors of the famine of the 

 previous year, and the importance of any knowledge that would enable 

 us to foresee those terrible calamities, were appealed to as strong 

 arguments for systematic reform of the existing inefficient machinery, 

 and as an instance of the interest which the Government has in the 

 effects of Meteorological phenomena. Other arrangements of a similar 



