1844.] 



Madras Literary Sociehj. 



Z33 



ward their views : and its office, to be, if possible, to answer all questions of 

 this nature which may arise, for public benefit. 



This may sometimes to be done from books, but the great library must be the 

 collections of our Museum, which are in fact a library of examples, to which the 

 commentary is the laboratory ; where, aided by the resources of the collection, 

 questions may often be solved in an hour, a day, or a week, which it would 

 take half an Indian life to obtain the mere materials for investigating. An 

 extensive collection, then, is the first requisite, and this should, if possible 

 comprise every inorganic product of the earth from which mankind derive any 

 advantage, with every information relative to it. It will readily occur to the 

 reader, that in India, owing to her infancy in some of the arts dependant on 

 these products, as in mining, agriculture, &c. ; and her singular progress in 

 others, as in peculiar branches of Metallurgy and the like, our almost absolute 

 ignorance of what her methods and resources are, the peculiarities of situa- 

 tion in which these resources may exist, those of climate, workmen, and many 

 others', we have almost every thing yet to learn ; and that to accomplish our 

 objects, we cannot be too well furnished with all the knowledge and examples 

 of Europe and the Americas, and all those of India, or of Asia. Without these, 

 our progress must be very limited ; but in proportion as we obtain them, we 

 may hope, without presumption, to see the day when the mines, the quarries, 

 and the soil of India may be done justice to, which assuredly, has never yet 

 been the case. * In this all classes are so clearly interested, that it would be 

 superfluous to shew it, as it is to shew that the resources of every country are 

 far more readily developed with public means for investigating, preserving, and 

 publishing all knowledge belonging to them, than where none such exist. 



It is therefore hoped, that those who may be desirous of assisting this great 

 public work, will bear in mind, that nothing, however familiar it may be to 

 those on the spot, is indifferent to us ; for if not wanted for the institution, it 

 may serve to procure that which is; and the following note is given rather as 

 a general memorandum than as specifying all which is desired. The general 

 rule is, that details cannot be too numerous, nor specimens too various, par- 

 ticularly if purely Indian. 



* It is curious to find that upwards of 140 years ago, the ores of the precious metals 

 were an article of export from the Dutch East Indies ! This is clearly shewn by the fol- 

 lowing passage from Schlutter's work, as translated by Hello t, and published by him 

 under the title of " Hellot sur les Mines," Paris J753. In Vol. II, p, 215, Chap, XLVI, 

 " On the East Indian Ores and their Fusion by the curved Furnace," he says,— 



" In 1704, Schlutter received by a private channel twenty-five quintals of ore from the 

 East Indies, &c." And again: "These sorts of ores (of gold and silver) sent from India 

 by the Dutch were frequently smelted at the foundery of Altenau in the Upper Hartz, 

 but had never been smelted in the lower Hartz. This ore was in lumps from the size 

 of a nut to that of walnut, and by trials it was found that the quint of HOlbs. con- 

 tained I oz. 8 drs. of gold and 3 oz. of silver." 



