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At a Special Meeting held, on the 24ith September 1841, of the Com- 

 mittee of Papers — 



The Hon'ble Sir E. Ryan, in the Chair. 



Read letter from Mr. H. Piddington of 9th September 1841, reporting that on 

 the 6th idem he had delivered over charge of his departments of the Museum of 

 the Asiatic Society to Mr. E. Blyth. 



Read the following correspondence with that gentleman : — 



To Edward Blyth, Esq. 



Sir, — As you have now taken charge of the Museum of the Asiatic Society of Ben- 

 gal, in your quality of Curator of that Museum, I am directed by the Honorable the 

 President to address you, for the purpose of pointing out those particular points to which 

 the Society would wish you to give your first and most earnest attention. 



2. The Hon. the President in writing to Professor Wilson regarding the qualifica- 

 tions of a Curator for the Society, (a reference which resulted in procuring for the 

 Society the advantage of your service,) made use of the following terms, in specifying 

 what was required. 



"We think the office should be filled by a person who can give to the Museum his 

 principal attention, and be in attendance from 11 to 4 p. m. The Salary is 250 Rs. 

 a month. As to duties, we require monthly reports on the state of the Museum. We 

 do not allow specimens to be removed from the Museum. Our Museum has, in fact, two 

 departments. The Oriental Antiquities, Numismatics, &c. &c. we must leave to our 

 Oriental Secretary, — but as to every thing connected with Natural History in our Muse- 

 um, we look to our Curator, — all this is specified in a paper in our Journal, or rather in 

 the minutes of the Proceedings of the Society for December 1839, when the question 

 was fully considered." 



3. The Hon. the President has desired me to enter the above at length for conveni- 

 ence of reference, although well aware that you must, in all probability, have already 



perused the passage in the original letter to Professor Wilson, before completing 

 your arrangement with the Professor on the part of the Society. 



4. The paper referred to, as containing a detailed statement of the Curator's duties, 

 you have doubtless also seen. I append it (as published in No. 96, Asiatic Society's 

 Journal, December 1839, p. 1060.), for readier reference. 



5. "The first object of the Society,"— it is there stated — "in remodelling its Mu- 

 seum, should be to form a grand collection of minerals and fossils, illustrative of the 

 Geology, Geography, and Palaeontology of our British Indian possessions," — This great 

 object it is the anxious and earnest desire of the Society to see carried out ; and with the 

 Museum of Economic Geology now added to our own, and the very large, but still much 

 disordered collections belonging to the Society, it is believed that opportunities exist 

 of forming the basis, at any rate, of a great Mineralogical and Geological Collection, 

 useful in every and all respects to the scientific Student, the Miner, or the Agricul- 

 turist. 



6. The Hon. the President is most anxious to know, what course you propose to adopt 

 in carrying out the design of the Society. The late officiating Curator, during the 

 short period of his holding the office, has, as you will observe, done much towards the 



