54 On the Rise andProgress of the Lithographic Art in India. 
Should the present communication prove acceptable, I have it in contemplation 
to forward, when leisure permits, other short notices on subjects connected with na- 
tural hiatnrv, which may prove interesting from their novelty. , 
Great allowances should be made for correspondents in these provinces, situate# 
at a distance from any public library or museum, and indebted for all the know- 
ledge they may possess on the subject of their remarks to a limited collection oi 
bonks and tlieir own meagre collections of natural objects. I shall only add, that 
truth being the grand desideratum in natural science, those who cultivate it 
must always receive with thanks any correction which may be necessary when 
they have erred eitherfrom ignorance or inadvertence. 
HI. On tlic Rise and Progress of the Lithographic Art in India, with alrief 
Notice of the native Lithographic Stories of that Country. 
It is now thirty years since Senefelder first discovered and nursed through its strug- 
gling infancy, an art, which in its giant growth has already added another and 
powerful lever to that mighty engine the rttEss. At the time when it burst upon the 
astonished sight of the literary world, any possible addition to tile established 
methods of printing even by mechanical means, would have been scouted as a chi- 
mera, hut to attain the unthought of object by a chemical process, peculiar) y simple 
as to its theory, but requiring the nicest exercise of the judgment in its practice, 
would have been pitied as a day-dream, and the unfortunate inventor considered lit- 
tle better than a madman. 
Whoever has perused that unassuming production, in which Senefelder sets forth 
the whole history of his attempts to establish .the principles of his invention in the 
face of pecuniary difficulties, active rivalry, and Apathetic incredulity, will be 
struck with the idea, that the great inventions which have distinguished past ages, 
and which stand conspicuous as landmarks in the waste of time, although the off- 
spring of chance, were committed to congenial spirits, whose enthusiasm and in- 
bred energy were not to lie daunted or turned aside by obstacles which, to ordi- 
nary minds, would have appeared insurmountable. 
It was thus at least with Lithography : originating in one of those li ppv acci- 
dents caused by the mother of all inventions*, it has, in the short period of half a 
century, been spread from “ Indus to the Pole," already supplying a great de- 
sideratum ill the economy of the press, almost superseding the costly and tedious 
manipulations of copperplate, for all purposes of utility, and even t reading on the 
heels of type, as an earnest of vvliat it will become, when in the course of a few 
years, the concentrated genius of the amateur, the artist, and the practical work- 
man shall have been brought to bear upon, and elicit, its yet untried powers 
It is no small honour to the man whose active forethought first introduced 
this art into the emporium of the Last, and though a tinge of national regret 
may stain the record, still it will be found merged in the feeling, that 'an indi- 
vidual domiciliated amongst us, and as eminent in his profession as respected in 
pin ate life, was ,he first to open this new held of enterprise to the energies of ex- 
lied ng isnmea. ® 
As far as we can trace, the earliest recorded fact of the employment of Lithograph? 
1.1 tins country is that of the present superintendent of the Government lSo- 
ph.c Press, winch oates m the early part of 1822 - hut we know that, c^ns derfbly 
more than a year previous to that time, Mr. Savignae had in. lit i ■ el l • ' 
and description in Senefelder s history) a large, hut perfetdy"^ ' 
press on the exploded star construction, with which lie executed „,'.7 , 
press.,, ns. To this individual, therefore, undoubtedly belong • the rred , f l’ ® w 
introduced the Lithographic art into India. Trivial as 2 ^ of haV ‘ . !? 
present registry may obviate much future learned research wl. 
ages, it may become a .subject of contention. ’ 111 the lapse o 
There are now three or four Lithographic presses in the place beside .n.. 1 • 
and amateur, in the possession of individuals in various nans ‘ se ' eral P r;Vate 
, The narrative mentions that Senefelder, bein', 
clean paper to register bis washiiv- ‘ • ' 
lulls parts of the country. To judge 
with some chemical 
and in attemptiu 
his mind. 
ink. 
list, wrote it on 
au desespoir” for r 
a piece 
of 
with Which he was making "experiment So| e«*hofen stone 
to rub off the characters, the 
