No. 12.-1860-1] 



PROCEEDINGS, 1860, 



vii 



handing a communication from the Batavian Society of Arts. Both these 

 documents were referred to the Committee of Correspondence. 



The Secretary laid before the Meeting copies of letters from the late Dr. 

 Buist and Sir J. Emerson Tennent to the Athenmum, having reference to 

 certain passages in the work on Ceylon by the latter, in which the 

 presence of the Fresh Water Wells in the Jaffna Peninsula near the sea 

 is accounted for, on the supposition that they are supplied from the sea ; 

 the water becoming deprived of its salt by the filtration through the coral 

 mass around. Dr. Buist controverts this theory as opposed to the first 

 principles of physics, whilst in reply, Sir Emerson Tennent urges the facts 

 brought forward by De Witt, in the Philosophical Magazine, to shew that 

 water containing considerable quantities of saline matter in solution, 

 may, by percolating through great masses of porous strata during long 

 periods, be gradually deprived of its salts to such an extent as probably 

 to render even salt-water fresh. The publication of this controversy 

 might probably lead to some further enquiry into the matter as regards 

 the fresh- water wells at Jaffna. 



The following gentlemen were then balloted for, and declared duly 

 elected -—Mr. W. J. Sendall, Mr. W. C. Ondaatjie, Mr. C. P. D'Zilva, 

 Mr. J. A. Caley, and Mr. 11. Piachaud. 



The undermentioned Papers were then read : — 



" The difference of the Pali and Magadhi dialects of Vararuchi," by 

 Mr. J. D' Alwis. 



" On Health and Diet, with especial reference to Children and Youths in 

 Ceylon," by the Rev. B. Boake, B.A. , Vice-President. 

 i4 On Hindu Philosophy," by Mr. Coomarasamy. 



L 



