1842.] Museum of Economic Geology of India. 323 



6. And finally, by chemical examinations of all these various specimens, to deter- 

 mine their value, and how they may be best turned to account for the general benefit 

 of the community. 



With objects like these the Museum of Economic Geology may be said to be placed 

 between the purely scientific geologist and the merchant, the miner, the farmer, the 

 manufacturer, and the builder, or in other words, the merely practical men, who may 

 desire to know how the knowledge of the geologist and mineralogist, — to them often 

 so recondite, and apparently so useless, — can forward their views : and its office, to be, 

 if possible, to answer all questions of this nature which may arise, for public benefit. 



This may sometimes to be done from books, but the great library must be the collec- 

 tions of our Museum, which are in fact a library of examples, to which the commentary 

 is the laboratory ; where, aided by the resources of the collection, questions may often 

 be solved in an hour, a day, or a week, which it would take half an Indian life to 

 obtain the mere materials for investigating. An extensive collection, then, is the first 

 requisite, and this should, if possible, comprise every inorganic product of the earth 

 from which mankind derive any advantage, with every information relative to it. It 

 will readily occur to the reader, that in India, owing to her infancy in some of the arts 

 dependant on these products, as in mining, agriculture, &c. ; and her singular pro- 

 gress in others, as in peculiar branches of Metallurgy and the like, our almost absolute 

 ignorance of what her methods and resources are, the peculiarities of situation in which 

 these resources may exist, those of climate, workmen, and many others, we have almost 

 every thing yet to learn ; and that to accomplish our objects, we cannot be too well fur- 

 nished with all the knowledge and examples of Europe and the Americas, and all those 

 of India, or of Asia. Without these, our progress must be very limited ; but in propor- 

 tion as we obtain them, We may hope, without presumption, to see the day when the 

 mines, the quarries, and the soil of India may be done justice to, which assuredly, has 

 never yet been the case.* In this all classes are so clearly interested, that it would be 

 superfluous to shew it, as it is to shew that the resources of every country are far more 

 readily developed with public means for investigating, preserving, and publishing all 

 knowledge belonging to them, than where none such exist. 



It is therefore hoped, that those who may be desirous of assisting this great public 

 work, will bear in mind, that nothing, however familiar it may be to those on the spot, 

 is indifferent to us; for if not wanted for the institution, it may serve to procure that 

 which is; and the following note is given rather as a general memorandum than as 

 specifying all which is desired. The general rule is, that details cannot be too 

 numerous, nor specimens too various, particularly if purely Indian. 



* It is curious to find that upwards of 140 years ago, the ores of the precious metals were an 

 article of export from the Dutch East Indies ! This is clearly shewn by the following passage from 

 Schlutter*s work, as translated by Hellot, and published by him under the title of " Hellot sur les 

 Mines/' Paris, 1753. In Vol. II. p. 285, Chap. XL VI. " On East Indian Ores and their Fusion by 

 the curved Furnace," he says — 



"In 1704, Schlutter received by a private channel twenty-five quintals of ore from the East 

 Indies, &c." And again : " These sorts of ores (of gold and silver) sent from India by the Dutch 

 were frequently smelted at the foundery of Altenau in the Upper Hartz, but had never been 

 smelted in the Lower Hartz. This ore was in lumps from the size of a nut to that of walnut, and 

 by trials it was found that the quintal of llOlbs. contained 1 oz. 8 drs of gold and 3£ oz. of silver." 



2u 



