158 Proceedings of the Asiatic Society. [July, 



foreign languages or coined in the vernaculars. He would in such 

 cases rather borrow than coin. But in regard to compound terms 

 which were not only to denote a thing but also to connote an attribute, 

 he thought the process of borrowing would be highly objectionable. 

 If it be strictly followed, it would put an end to all scientific termino- 

 logy, and the beauty of classification would be entirely gone. There 

 was in Bengali a word for iron, and also one for the oxide of 

 iron, but none for oxygen or an oxide. Now in treating of the 

 oxide of iron in Bengali, he asked whether it should be called oxide 

 of iron, or, oxide of lohd, or morchyd f The first would be perfectly 

 unintelligible, the second an intolerable mongrel, retaining an English 

 preposition and an English affix in connection with a Bengali word, 

 and the third utterly unscientific. In Botany again there was a word 

 for leaf in Bengali, but none for lanceolate, and he left it to the 

 meeting to decide if the words lanceolate leaf or lanceolate pdtd would 

 be the most appropriate way of teaching Bengali mallies the pecu- 

 liarity of a particular kind of leaf. He was no purist, he said, 

 and had some experience in the preparatiqn of vernacular works for 

 his countrymen, and he begged most earnestly to assure the meeting 

 that there could not be greater monstrosities in language, than terms 

 made up partly of European and partly of native words, held together 

 by a random sprinkling of English prepositions and English affixes, 

 and to them the meeting would drive the people of this country if 

 it would insist upon their terminology being transliterated, and not 

 translated and adapted from the English language. 



On the motion of Major W. N. Lees, the discussion was then ad- 

 journed till Wednesday the 18th Instant. 



The Council reported that they had elected Dr. J. Ewart, a 

 member of their body, vice Major W. N. Lees who had resigned. 



The receipt of the following communications will be announced. 



1. From Baboo Goopee Nath Sen, Abstract of the Hourly 

 Meteorological Observations taken in March, 1866. 



2. From the Officiating Secretary Government of Bengal, Public 

 Works Department, " Report of the Superintending Engineers of 

 Bengal on particulars of the Earthquake of the 15th December, 1865." 



3. From Captain H. H. Godwin Austen, ' ; Notes on the Pangong 

 lake, District of Ladakh." 



