14 Proceedings of the Asiatic Society. [Jan. 



" It is at an eventful period in the history of the Asiatic Society, that 

 the office of President has been assigned to me. In parting with its 

 noble collections, and thus associating itself with the inchoate Imperial 

 Museum, it has given an impulse to the progress of science in this 

 country, that can hardly be over-estimated. 



" Long possessed of one of the richest known collections of natural 

 history, and enjoying the services of a distinguished naturalist as 

 curator, it had yet the mortification of seeing these collections 

 gradually suffer from neglect and decay ; the valuable services and 

 contributions of its best supporters frustrated, if not altogether lost ; 

 the progress of natural science languishing, and energy failing, because 

 the necessary funds were not forthcoming to meet the demand ; and 

 notwithstanding the subsidy of a Government which has so often 

 generously aided in the advance of knowledge, the Society was unable 

 to keep pace with the requirements of the period, or to maintain, in 

 its due freshness and integrity, the position to which it might have 

 fairly been entitled in the scientific world. This happily is no longer 

 to be the case. It is sufficiently apparent even" to the most casual 

 observer, among those who frequent the Society's meetings, that a 

 great change has already taken place ; and I feel certain that what we 

 now see is but an earnest of much more that is to come. 



" The Imperial Museum will hold our collections. The curator of 

 that Institution will jealously preserve and guard whatever we entrust 

 to his care. Scientific men and others in India will contribute to him 

 what they would have sent to us ; but our interest is still with our 

 collections, and to us the world will look for further contributions and 

 further elaboration and generalization of the mass of material already 

 accumulated. With the impulse that science has received by the recent 

 conjoined action of the Government and the Society, I would venture 

 to hope that increased activity in furthering scientific enquiry will 

 agitate its members generally ; and that a more vivid appreciation of 

 scientific research, and the importance of a more zealous investigation 

 into the large field of knowledge which still lies open in India, will 

 characterize the efforts of every individual connected with the Society ; 

 that these rooms will be the scene of many animated discussions of 

 subjects connected with every department of science ; and the object 

 of the founder may be fulfilled, — " That enquiry may be fully extend- 



