416 Memoranda on the Museum of the Asiatic Soceity. [May, 



birds, fishes, and the smaller reptiles and mammalia which may be dis- 

 posed of along the walls. The second description of cabinets will 

 answer equally for shells, insects, rocks, minerals, and fossils. Thus 

 every object for which a cabinet is likely to be required may find a 

 place in one of the two sorts, to which it is proposed to confine the 

 furniture of the Museum. 



That an unnecessary variety in the form of cabinetsdestroys the 

 uniformity of the Museum, and that lofty cabinets placed in the 

 middle of the apartments, as at present, convey a sense of closeness 

 and prevent the use of punkas, so essential in this climate, any one who 

 has paid a visit to the Museum must see. 



Indeed, without the strictest attention to some general plan in the 

 fitting up of a Museum, it must appear to persons of taste rather as any 

 thing rather than a place of science. Of all our cabinets, those only 

 in which the perching birds have been placed on shelves by Mr. Jameson 

 ought to be retained longer than it may be convenient to the Society 

 to replace them. Twelve glazed tables of the pattern already alluded 

 to, each nine feet in length, ought to be provided. These would admit 

 of all the rocks and minerals, as well as fossils, which constitute an im- 

 portant portion of the Society's collection, being brought forward and 

 exhibited. Even if twelve tables should prove too many for this object, 

 the spare ones would be ready for the reception of such new collections 

 of interest as might be sent to us in any of the numerous departments 

 for which such tables are intended. 



The next subject to consider is the nomenclature of the Museum. 

 It is necessary, for various reasons, that this should not altogether rest 

 on the authority of the Curator. There is a plan which with a little 

 regularity in its execution, will place this very important object on the 

 best possible footing, and at the same time afford to our Museum some- 

 thing more than local interest. Let every species be numbered, and all 

 duplicates be numbered so as to correspond with the species to which 

 they belong in the regular collection.* After retaining a perfect series 

 or two let duplicates or triplicates be forwarded on the part of the 

 Society to individuals eminent in particular branches of science, re- 



* There are now in the Museum some hundreds of duplicate skins of birds, some of 

 which appear to have been intended for the East India Company's Museum; these may 

 be all numbered so as to correspond with our own collection, and figured lists trans- 

 mitted with them to the India House, soliciting that such lists may be returned to the 

 Society with the correct nomenclature inserted opposite to the figures. Anticipating 

 no objection to this, I have already numbered most of the birds in the Socie%'s collec- 

 tion, and have ordered corresponding numbers to be attached to those intended for the 

 Honorable Court. 



