Report. xiii 



General Arrangements, Rules, &c. 



The Council have to report their opinion that the appointment of 

 Sections has been attended with much success, and recommend their 

 re-election for the ensuing year. Some discussion having arisen as to 

 the mode of election of the Secretaries to the Sections, the Council now 

 advise that each Section or Committee appoint its own Secretary, sub- 

 ject to confirmation by a general meeting — further that each Section be 

 authorized to appoint not more than four corresponding members, 

 not members of the Society, who may be residents in India, liable to 

 re-election, and having no voice or vote in the Society's discussions or 

 affairs. The Council again consider it necessary to urge that the func- 

 tions of the Sections be limited to those already prescribed, and that 

 they can have no control over Funds, nor dispose of collections, nor 

 institute any official correspondence, except with the Society itself and 

 their own regular corresponding members. The President and Secre- 

 taries should moreover, in the opinion of the Council, be ex-officio 

 members of all Sections. 



Rules. 



To obviate as much as possible the occurrence of discussions which 

 may interrupt the scientific or literary proceedings of the Society, the 

 Council advise that no change of rules or institution of new rules shall 

 take place in future, except at the annual meeting, or at an extraordinary 

 meeting convened for the purpose, on the requisition of 1 2 members, 

 addressed to the President. 



The rule prohibiting the publication of the " Proceedings" till after 

 having been submitted to the following meeting, the Council recommend 

 to be abolished, as useless and inconvenient. The proceedings of the 

 meetings are but a * Proces Verbal' of the facts which have occurred — and 

 delaying their publication retards that of the Journal — deprives contri- 

 butors of what is so valuable to many, the immediate publication of the 

 date of presentation of their papers — and withholds from the public for 

 at least a month numerous miscellaneous notices of discoveries and literary 

 researches, which to the mass of readers and the public generally consti- 

 tute the most interesting portion of the contents of the Journal. As 

 however experience has shown that in reporting the proceedings oppor- 



