No. 5—1850.] 



PEOCEEDINGS, 1850. 



339 



Your Committee do not, however, recommend any relaxation of 

 the strict economy which has hitherto regulated their expenditure. 

 The time, in their opinion, has not yet come when the Society 

 can dispense with the smallest share of caution or prudence in the 

 disposal of its funds. 



With regard to the business which has come before the Society 

 during the year, your Committee have to report the arrival of the 

 meteorological instruments which were ordered before the last 

 Anniversary Meeting '1 hese have now been set up some time 

 in convenient places, and your Librarian lays before the Society 

 the result of observations made by himself in Colombo since August 

 last, with two meteorological registers for the year from Batticotta 

 and Trincomalee. 



Your Committee desire further to direct attention to their 

 measures lately introduced for the better regulation of the 

 Society's Publications. It was found that much delay was the 

 inevitable result of the old plan, and that many Members, especi- 

 ally those at outstations, had no means of arriving at a knowledge 

 of the subjects laid before the Society until all interest in them 

 had ceased. It has been, in consequence, determined : — 



1. That the Proceedings of each General Meeting be published 

 as soon as possible after such Meeting, and a copy of these 

 Proceedings be sent to each of the outstation Members. 



2. That the selection of Papers for the Journal be entrusted 

 to a Council appointed by the Society for that purpose. 



3. That instead of being confined to a yearly issue, a number of 

 the Journal be published whenever and as soon as sufficient 

 matter is collected. 



Considerable advantages seem already to have accrued from the 

 first two regulations, which came into effect immediately, and your 

 Committee think they can trace to your operation a portion of the 

 increased energy on the part of the outstation Members alluded 

 to in a former part of the Report. Your Committee count on 

 similar results from the third, but as it will not begin to take 

 effect till after the publication of the ensuing number, they cannot 

 speak from experience. 



The Papers which have come before the Society have been 

 of a very interesting nature. Mr. Layard's Papers on Natural 

 History derive considerable value from the fact that specimens 

 of many of the animals described have been forwarded to Calcutta, 

 and there carefully compared with those in the extensive Museum 

 of the East India Company, by the learned Curator of that 

 Institution. 



Lieutenant Henderson's and Mr. Brodie's Papers on the marks in 

 a rock at Kurunegala are of great geological interest, and similar 

 marks are said to he found in other parts of the Island. Some notes 



57—87 p 



