INTRODUCTORY NOTICE. 



In presenting the first number of the Madras Journal of 

 Literature and Science to the public it is considered ad- 

 viseable to offer a few observations, with respect to the causes 

 that have given rise to its publication and to the o;eneral scope 

 and object of its operations. The absence has long been felt 

 and generally regretted of a Journal at this Presidency which 

 might form a channel of immediate publicity to the commu- 

 nications of those interested in the cause of literature and 

 science. The public prints of the day are obviously ill calcu» 

 lated for the purpose, and the opportunity presented by the 

 publication of the transactions of the Literary Society is by 

 far too distant and uncertain. 



The consequence has been that many valuable and inter- 

 esting communications, which would otherwise have contri- 

 buted to the fame and credit of this Presidency, have been 

 transferred to, and served to add to the literary laurels of the 

 sister Presidencies, where several periodical publications of 

 a litera ry and scientific character have long since been esta- 

 blished. 



At the present period when the attention of England is 

 particularly directed towards this interesting country, and 

 every communication tending to the developement of its re- 

 sources or to add to the information we already possess in 

 regard to its inhabitants, their manners and customs, is sought 

 with the greatest avidity, it appears the more incumbent that 

 each Presidency should contribute its respective share of in- 

 formation on these points, with the view of distinguishing the 

 great and remarkable difference which exists in the people, 

 their institutions, and usages, in different parts of the British 

 territory in the East. 



The great and well deserved success that has attended the 

 Journal of the Asiatic Society of Calcutta, has pointed it out 

 as a fit and appropriate model after which to found the Mad- 

 ras Periodical which is about to be established, under the aus- 



