26 
MEMOIR OF 
being thus brought forward to public notice, a se- 
parate society was formed, by the unremitting perse- 
verance of Mr Kadermacher, who may be called the 
founder of the institution established at Batavia. 
“ On the 24th of April 1778, this society was duly 
established, under the authority of Government, and, 
after the example of Haerlem, took for its motto, 
‘ The ■public utility.' On its first organization, the 
Society consisted of 192 members, the Governor- 
General being chief director, and members of the 
High Regency directors. The Society selected as 
objects of research and inquiry, whatever could be 
useful to agriculture, commerce, and the welfare of 
the colony; it encouraged every question relating to 
natural history, antiquities, and the manners and 
usages of the native inhabitants : and in order the 
better to define the objects and contribute to their 
accomplishment, a programme was from time to time 
printed and circulated abroad.” 
The Society was no sooner fully established, and 
its proceedings generally known, than it received 
from all quarters various acquisitions to its cabinet 
and library. Mr Kadermacher himself presented 
the Society with a convenient house, and eight cases 
of valuable books, &c . ; and by the liberality of Mr 
Bartto, it was enabled to form a botanical establish- 
ment, in a garden presented by that gentleman. In 
1779 the first volume of transactions was printed, 
in 1780 the second, and the third in 1781 ; and be- 
fore 1792 six volumes had appeared. At this pe- 
