NOTICES OF NEW BOOKS. 467 



This book is excellently illustrated, and will be found indis- 

 pensable to all students of Indian economic entomology. 



The Indian Museum, 1814-1914. Trustees of the Indian 

 Museum, Calcutta. 



We are told in the Preface that this volume has been 

 prepared in commemoration of the hundredth anniversary of the 

 foundation of the Asiatic Society's Museum, which subsequently 

 developed into the Indian Museum as it now exists. Sir William 

 Jones founded the Asiatic Society in 1784, but it was not till 

 1814 that the project of a Museum was actually or efficiently 

 made to be under the Honorary Curatorship of Dr. Wallich. In 

 1856 a memorial was submitted to the Government of India for 

 the establishment of an Imperial Museum, and in 1862 the 

 proposal was actually taken into consideration with regard to 

 its practical realization, and it was in 1875 that the Museum 

 building, one of the largest in Calcutta, became ready for 

 occupation. In its early days it was organized by Dr. Anderson, 

 assisted by Mr. Wood-Mason, and since then under successive 

 able superintendents it has become the recognized Museum of 

 the Orient. 



Some of the most valuable zoological collections have been 

 made by the biological workers of the Marine Survey of India, 

 and the name of the E.LM.S.S. 'Investigator' has become to 

 biologists as well-known in Indian seas as that of the ' Challenger ' 

 over a much wider area. The institution has grown and is still 

 growing, its publications are standard and well-known, while it 

 now publishes more or less regularly its own ' Memoirs ' and 

 ' Eecords.' Of the valuable collections we have not the space 

 to adequately refer to. There is, however, one effort which we 

 think a matter for question, and that is the preservation of 

 "types," of which so much has recently been heard. When these 

 are of a delicate and perishable nature, an Indian climate is not 

 their best environment, and they, when other representatives 

 are obtained, would perhaps be safer and more durable in our 

 British Museum. 



