72 Proceedings of the Asiatic Society. [March, 



the project to be, to try, in the first instance, to obtain a sort of 

 exhibition or congress of the local races found in and near Bengal 

 and other provinces, on the occasion of Local Industrial Exhibitions ; 

 and the eventual hope is, that the way being thus prepared, we may 

 at some not very distant day have in Calcutta a great ethnological 

 congress of all the races of India in its widest sense ; in fact of all 

 Southern Asia and the Archipelago, a congress of such a character that 

 many of the Savants and accomplished men of Europe may not 

 improbably be induced to take a part in it. I think it most desirable 

 that the proposition should be made known to the members of the 

 Society at large, and to the public, with whose support I trust that 

 it will be worked out : also that the Council should be supported in 

 the matter by the vote of a general meeting. I hope therefore, that 

 the Council will think it proper to read the correpondence at the next 

 meeting, that the meeting will sanction what has been done, and 

 that the subject will be found to be one of great general interest. 

 With this object, I beg to give notice of the following motions at the 

 next meeting on the first Wednesday of April. 



"1. That the correspondence and proceedings of the Council regard- 

 ing the proposed ethnological gathering be read. 



" 2. That the Society approve of the action of the Council in the 

 matter. 



" 3. That a copy of the Proceedings be communicated to the Punjab 

 Government, with the expression of a hope, that it also will take an 

 early opportunity of collecting and comparing specimens of the various 

 very interesting and highly developed races in and about its territory, 

 as a measure preliminary to a more general ethnological congress." 



Mr Waldie remarked on the specimen of a Candle and Ear-rings 

 from Burmah, presented to the Society at its meeting in January by 

 S. Avdall, Esq. 



" I have examined the samples of a Burmese candle and earring which 

 was presented to the Society by the Bev. Mr. Long at the January 

 meeting, and find that they are, as I then suggested, composed of Pa- 

 raffin or the solid hydrocarbon which is found in the Petroleum of 

 Rangoon and other places, These petroleums agree in their general 

 characters with the oils obtained by the slow distillation of coal and 

 bituminous shales,in contradistinction to the tarry products obtained by 



