June, 1844.] Proceedings of the Asiatic Society. lix 



After some conversation, it was determined that it should be left to the 

 Committee of Papers to settle the number of copies to be subscribed for, 

 and to frame the recommendatory letter to Government on the part of the 

 Society. 



Read the following letter from Dr. W. Griffith, Acting Superintendent 

 Honorable Company's Botanical Garden, which had been overlooked at 

 the former meeting, from having slipped into the portfolios of drawings : — 



No. 22. 



From W. Griffith, Esq. Officiating Superintendent of the Hon'ble Company's Botanical 

 Garden, to H. Torrens, Esq., Secretary to the Asiatic Society, dated 9th April, 1844. 



Sir, — In obedience to instructions received from the Under-Secretary to the Government of Bengal, 



I have the pleasure of forwarding to you the Buchanan Manuscripts 



Animals 37 



Reptiles 18 and Drawings, as per margin. I shall be obliged by your furnishing 



Unfinished, 1 me w ith a receipt for the same. Amongst them will be found 



Birds 345 . . . . 



Fishes .. 137 many copies substituted for originals, and also many duplicate copies 



Unfinished drawings ap- it appears to me that these, especially the last, may lead to the 



parently originals, ... 18 „ , . , . , „ , 



Copies of Birds made by discovery of the manner in which so many of these drawings have 



Dr. Waliich 22 been copied in General Hardwicke's Illustrations of Indian Zoology, 



Ditto of Fishes made by „ , , . , , 



ditto several to be re- so * ar as I £ now > without any acknowledgment (except in the 



cognised in the Illus- case f a f ew turtles) of the source whence they were derived, 



tration of Indian Zoo- , ,,,...„. .„ • , 



l „y 20 and I am sure that the Asiatic society will consider the object of its 



~~ being the custos of these drawings in a great measure fulfilled, 



Total, 607 



Two volumes of Manu- ^ ** * s enabled to do justice to that very eminent person, the timely 



script. publication of whose labours, would have superseded to a great 



degree the labours of Messrs. Hodgson, Blyth and Jerdon. 



I have the honor to be, Sir, 



Your most obedient Servant, 



Hon'ble Company's Botanic Garden, 9lh April, 1844. William Griffith, 



Officiating Superintendent. 



Dr. McGowan, of the American Missionary Hospital at Ningpo, pre- 

 sented an Inscription from a Tablet in a Buddhist Monastery at Ningpo, 

 of which the characters, though supposed to be Buddhistical, were unknown 

 to the learned in China, whether Natives or Europeans, and had been 

 pronounced here as not being of any recognised form of the Thibetan. The 

 Inscription was handed to the Editors of the Journal for early insertion. 



Dr. McGowan also kindly offered to take charge of the impressions 

 from the Ningpo bell, and to inform the Society if the remaining parts 

 were worth the trouble of cleaning and taking off. 



