NO. 51.— 1900.] ANNUAL REPORT. 



155 



Zoology : li. 



Winton, W. E. de. Remarks on the existing forms of Giraffe. 

 P. Zool. Soo. London, 1897, pp. 273-283. 



[Mammalia, Artiodactyla, Giraffidce.'] 



Giraffa, specific characters, figg. ; synonymy ... 

 Means of defence, use and origin of horns 

 Africa, distribution in 



III. — The Regional Bureau for India and Ceylon. 



The Asiatic Society of Bengal, recognizing the immense value of 

 the scheme to workers in this country, readily acceded to the request 

 of the Royal Society and undertook the formation and conduct of a 

 Regional Bureau for India and Ceylon. The Governments of India 

 and Ceylon have been addressed on the subject, and, in addition to an 

 annual grant sanctioned by the former Government to cover office 

 expenses, they have directed all heads of Government Departments 

 issuing publications on subjects-included in the Royal Society's list to 

 supply the Asiatic Society with primary slips of the kind described 

 above ; they have also instructed Local Governments and Administra- 

 tions to supply periodical lists of books and journals published within 

 their jurisdiction, with, as far as possible, copies of the publications. 



A Committee has been appointed by the Asiatic Society to control 

 the work of this Regional Bureau, and each subject defined by the 

 Royal Society is represented on the Committee by a Specialist, who 

 will be responsible for checking or supplementing the primary slips 

 relating to publications in his particular subject. 



To Authors. — But as there are some fifty periodicals to be examined, 

 besides independently published works, the Committee feels that its 

 self-imposed task will not be adequately carried out without the loyal 

 assistance of authors themselves, who, naturally, can most rapidly and 

 most accurately indicate the scope of their essays. 



The working of this scheme will, moreover, be attended with certain 

 advantages to the authors themselves ; for the catalogues will be 

 regularly printed and issued by the Royal Society to the subscribers, 

 who will include, besides many of the chief workers in each science, 

 the principal scientific institutions and libraries in the world. In this 

 way all scientific papers and books published in India will be brought 

 to the notice of the scientific world, and the present partial and un- 

 avoidable neglect of Indian publications will consequently no longer 

 be possible. In fact, as far as the scientific world is concerned, work 

 published in India will now receive, as it should do, exactly the same 

 notice as it would if published by a leading society in Europe. 



The assistance which the Committee ask of authors of papers 

 coming within the scope of the catalogue is the preparation of a 

 " primary slip " for each paper, prepared as already indicated and in a 

 form similar to the two samples given above. 



It is important to observe that what is required is not an index to 

 the paper or book, but an index to the subjects treated, and the entries 

 for these should be as brief and as few as is consistent with the scope 

 of the paper. The author is not asked to enter the registration letters 

 and numbers ; that will be done by the Bureau, but he is requested to 



D 106-01 



