1869.] Proceedings of the Asiatic Sociefi/. 23 



tvill not believe that you look upon the efforts of the Society as 

 a mere pastime, that you come here for the idle purpose of passing 

 an hour, or of merely gratifying intellectual curiosity, however 

 laudable such might be. I would rather be convinced that you feel, 

 that by the very act of enrolling yourselves on the list of this, or 

 any other institution for the promotion of science, you accept the 

 position of joint trustees for the great treasury of truth, and are in all 

 honour bound to see that the talents thus committed to your charge 

 receive no diminution, but rather bear fruitful increase, at your hand. 

 If then, each member of the Society, would but induce one single 

 new member to join — and surely it is not assuming too much, 

 that one at least in the acquaintance of every one of us, would take 

 an interest in our pursuits, — I say, if each member of the Society 

 added only one to our lists, and thus doubled our numbers, the 

 difficulties under which we now labour would disappear, the utility of 

 the Society would be largely increased, and the circle of its influence 

 might be still further widened, by reducing the amount of contribu- 

 tions demanded from each of its members. 



During the year just closed, the Society at large has unanimously 

 sanctioned the formal transfer of its collections of Natural History, 

 Antiquities, and of miscellaneous objects, to the Trustees of the 

 Indian Museum, incorporated under Act XVII of 1866, to be by 

 them held in trust, for the Society, to form part of a general Museum, 

 freely accessible to all, and to be located in a building specially 

 erected for this object. This building, as the members of the Society 

 are aware, is now in progress. It is situated in the very best locality 

 in Calcutta, facing the large open maidan ; it will be large, roomy, 

 and we trust admirably adapted for the purposes for which it has 

 been intended. Pending the completion of this building, the collec- 

 tions still remain in the rooms of the Society, and in a house in an 

 adjoining street, rented to provide the necessary additional accommo- 

 dation. Full lists of those collections have also been prepared by 

 the zealous exertion of two of our members, Dr. Stoliczka and Mr. 

 Y. Ball, who acted as Curators of the Indian Museum during the 

 absence of Dr. John Anderson with the expedition to Yunan. And 

 the Council are now therefore authorized and prepared finally to 



