966 Asiatic Society. [Nov. 



to facilitate our examination of the Cherra fossils. With a similar view Professor 

 Reinhardt has presented the Society (through the medium of Dr. Cantor, by whom 

 they have been safely conveyed from Denmark to our Museum free of expense) with 

 the valuable collection of skulls oWetacea from Greenland, now on the table, to facilitate 

 the examination of the fossil Mammalia that abound in several districts of India. 



We cannot however flatter ourselves that any results we have yet attained are such 

 as to entitle us to the aid of naturalists in Europe. I therefore refer the interest which 

 the above marks of attention betoken in favor of our scientific movements, to the per- 

 sonal influence of one of our members, Dr. Cantor, who has recently returned from 

 Europe, where he met a reception for his labors among us, from philosophers of every 

 rank, of which he may well be proud, and which cannot fail to produce a powerful 

 effect on his future career in India. 



Our scientific progress will however depend so much on the cultivation of a general 

 intercourse with scientific individuals and Societies in other parts of the world, that 

 we ought to take advantage of the occasion by meeting the views of those who are 

 desirous of exchanging collections with us. 



Indeed to attempt to establish a national Museum in India without this kind of 

 co-operation, would be to reject what has been done in Europe, and to begin the 

 study of the physical sciences as if nothing had been accomplished beyond the few 

 scattered publications that reach India. It is by cultivating an interchange with 

 other Museums, and thus introducing the known species of other countries as the 

 standard of comparison for the elucidation of the unknown species of this, that we are 

 to advance our own collections, and contribute most effectually to the general diffusion 

 of knowledge, and the progress of science. 



5th February, 1840. J M'CLELLAND. 



Dr. M'Clelland then rose and addressed the meeting regarding the attendance 

 of the curator for two hours a day, and a monthly report on the Museum, as insisted 

 upon in the minute of the President, which he objected to. He objected to any 

 stipulated period of daily attendance beyond what might be necessary to superintend 

 the persons employed in the Museum, and of this the curator himself should be sup- 

 posed the best judge. He has been in the habit of devoting more time than two hours, 

 he might say even five hours, daily to the duties of the Museum, but that was at his own 

 house, wherehe had painters and other facilities which the Museum did not afford, and 

 where he would continue to employ himself pretty much in the same way whether 

 appointed curator or not. As to reports, he also thought these should be left to the dis- 

 cretion of the curator, as it would be useless reporting unless there should happen to be 

 something of interest to report about. 



Sir Edward Ryan said, that he thought Dr. M'Clelland did not quite under- 

 stand him by two hours a day ; he did not mean that two hours should be given every 

 day, but that if he could not give one, four hours could be devoted to it the next, and 

 so on, only that on an average two hours daily, whether at home or at the Museum, 

 6 hould be required by the Society from the curator. 



As to monthly reports, it was not absolutely necessary that a long report should be 

 furnished every month ; for some months there might not be any thing to report, when 

 only a letter stating this circumstance would be all that would be required. Monthly 

 reports were only necessary as public records for future reference for a history of the 

 Museum, and also that they might have something which they could produce if called 



