396 Proceedings of the Asiatic Society. [No. 4. 



13. Such a Museum would of course be freely open to the Public, 

 (as that of the Asiatic Society now is) under suitable regulations. 



14. With respect to management, if the suggestion above thrown 

 out were adopted, and the University of Calcutta, the Asiatic Society 

 of Bengal, and the National Museum, were combined under one roof, 

 it might be thought that a board selected from among the members 

 of the University, and of the Asiatic Society, would afford a practi- 

 cable and effective control. A Board of some sort seems to be es- 

 sential to provide an efficient general control over the various 

 departments of which the Museum would consist, and to ensure 

 steadiness of purpose and system ; and as the nucleus of the Museum 

 would be the gift of the Asiatic Society, that body might have the 

 power of selecting some of its own members to share in the manage- 

 ment. Such an arrangement would probably remove objections to 

 the proposed transfer entertained by some of our members, who 

 think that the Society has no right to alienate collections, which they 

 conceive to be held by it on trust. 



15. As to the extent of the Museum, it must of course, be regu- 

 lated by the funds that the Government might find itself in a posi- 

 tion to set aside for such an object. A natural limit might readily 

 be assigned to it by confining it specially to the preservation of ob- 

 jects collected in India with such small additions of a typical cha- 

 racter as might be necessary for purposes of illustration. 



16. But the Council will abstain from entering into details in 

 respect of this, as of other matters, and they will only further add 

 that in an economical point of view the combination of all the Natur- 

 al History collections in one Museum, would appear advantageous 

 not only as respects the staff of Curators, but as it might be made 

 ancillary to the appointment of Professors of Natural Science, whose 

 lectures would be accessible to all students, from all educational 

 institutions, on terms of perfect equality. 



17. The Council having thus briefly indicated the general nature 

 of their proposal, desire to explain the causes which have more im- 

 mediately led to the present application of the Society. With the 

 gradual accumulation of their collections, it has at length become 

 apparent that the funds of the Society are quite inadequate for the 

 proper maintenance or display of the specimens. The collections are 

 still in a satisfactory state of preservation, but the Couucil cannot 



