1840.] Asiatic Society. 863 



" I am now about to proceed to mount Aboo, celebrated by Tod, and I hope to find 

 some Pali writing, as well as other characters there. 



** My principal object in writing to you now, is this— my brother of the 64th states, 

 that when looking for my lost drawings either in the Society's apartments or in the Mint, 

 he found a number of facsimiles of old inscriptions bearing my signature, which were 

 thrown aside in consequence of James Prinsep's illness; now as many of them, a few 

 in particular, were very valuable, and of considerable age, as the pillars upon which 

 I found them testify, I think it right to bring the circumstance to your notice, with 

 a hope that you will not allow them to lie any longer as they now do, * unnoticed 

 and unknown.' " 



The query put by Capt. Burt, regarding the fate of his inscriptions, was directed 

 to be referred to the executors of the late Secretary, Mr. James Prinsep. 



Read a report from the Officiating Curator to the Society's Museum, together with 



the following observations recorded by the Officiating Secretary, in submitting that 



Report to the Committee of Papers. 



" I have the honor to submit to the Committee of Papers, the accompanying report 

 by our present Officiating Curator. The zeal with which Mr. Piddington is enter- 

 ing on his task of arresting the progress of decay, will I trust be as grateful to the Com- 

 mittee, who were the cause of his temporary appointment, as his labours are certain 

 of being useful to the Society." 



" To H. ToRRENs, Esq. 

 *' Dear Sir, " Officiating Secretary of the Asiatic Society. 



" Having in pursuance of your letter of 27th December last assumed charge of the 

 Museum of the Asiatic Society, as Officiating Curator, on 1st instant, I have now, in 

 obedience to the resolutions of the Committee of Papers referred to in it, to submit my 

 Monthly Report. 



" Palaontological, Geological, and Mineralogical Department. — The first im- 

 pression which a cursory inspection of these departments of the Museum has given 

 me, is a strong one of the sad dilapidation going on amongst them; partly in 

 consequence of trusting to the very perishable recording, which ink, paper and paste 

 admit of in a climate like this, and partly from the almost entire absence of any ge- 

 neral or serial catalogues to the various collections; many of which, again, have evi- 

 dently been broken into, for the purpose I presume of completing other arrangements ? 

 but of no such arrangements, whether completed or left incomplete, has it seems any 

 note or register unfortunately been left in the Museum. I have written to my pre- 

 decessors on this subject, to ascertain if any records of any kind exist, and I yet trust we 

 shall be able to rescue something to guide us in the sad confusion which now pre- 

 vails. 



" I may briefly state a few facts in confirmation of what is here said. In our rich 

 Palaeontological collection, no registers or catalogues, beyond the few lists printed 



5 R 



