1859.] Proceedings of tlie Asiatic Society. 393 



some measure, to have failed in co-operating with the Government 

 almost in the very matter on which it now claims assistance. This 

 decision arose from a conviction, which, if mistaken, was certainly 

 honorable and justifiable, that the separation of an important portion 

 of the Society's collections would be injurious to its interest or even 

 fatal to its existence ; but the Resolution, which empowers the 

 Council now to address the Government, sufficiently attests the opi- 

 nions of the Society upon the present question. 



6. In proceeding to explain more precisely the nature of their 

 present proposal, the Council would remark how important it is that 

 the efforts of all who are interested in the progress of the various 

 branches of Natural Science in this city should be combined in one 

 and the same direction. So long as our Collections are broken up 

 into detached portions, we deprive them of half their value, because 

 they do not afford to the Scientific investigator those means of com- 

 parison, which, from the intimate relations between the several 

 Natural Sciences, are essential to complete and successful research. 

 The interest of scientific enquiry and the means of useful study must 

 be greatly diminished, if we lose the opportunity of tracing out the 

 connections and relations between natural objects. A Museum, 

 so far as it is practicable, should exhibit unbroken that series of 

 links which actually exists in Nature. Cordially approving therefore, 

 the expressed intention of the Government to form in connexion 

 with their Colleges such Natural History or other collections as 

 may be requisite for the purposes of instruction, the Council would 

 most earnestly insist on the superior advantages which must result 

 from the establishment of one Central and General Museum in which 

 all our resources, (which on the most sanguine estimate certainly are 

 not likely to be excessive,) should be concentrated. It is to solicit 

 the Government to undertake the foundation of such a Museum in 

 which all our available Natural History Collections might be com- 

 bined, and in which should be provided a fitting place of exhibition 

 for other objects of interest whether Physical, Economical, or Histo- 

 rical, that the Council has instructed me now to address you ; and 

 it is for the foundation of such a Museum that the Society is pre- 

 pared, in the terms of its Resolution, to bestow the whole of its own 

 collections. 



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