1862.] 
813 
Proceedings of the Asiatic Sociefg. 
cords of tills sort kept up which are of considerable value and might 
be made much more so with a very little arrangement. Thus a 
register of rain fall is kept, we believe, in every district in India, 
and has been so kept for a very long series of years. If made with 
fair care these records might be invaluable in a scientific point of view. 
Again the medical officers of the Government, all over the country, 
are expected to keep certain meteorological registers in their hospi¬ 
tals. We have no doubt that these i*ecords are kept by many medi¬ 
cal officers with great care and accuracy. But on the other hand it 
is not to be denied that a large number of them are made with no 
sufficient attention. Further they are not truly susceptible of com¬ 
parison one with another from the very different ways in which they 
are kept; and as it is impossible to distinguish the good from the 
bad, the value of the whole of them is very much diminished if not 
altogether lost. 
O * 
Lastly, we would observe that the very essence of the value of 
such observations is, that they should be brought into relation one 
with another. 
If when made they are only to be put into a cupboard, they had 
far better not be made at all. If it be worth the trouble to make 
them, it is worth the trouble to use them; and using them means 
reviewing them, as a whole, in a regular systematic and scientific 
manner. 
We do not conceal from ourselves that the difficulties in the way 
of such a methodic system of meteorological observation are great, 
but this is no reason for not attempting to overcome them. 
On the whole, considering the circumstances of the country, and 
the fact that the great majority of observers will commonly be offi¬ 
cers of the Government, what seems to us the course most likely to 
have a useful effect would be for the Government to constitute a 
Board of visitors of the Calcutta Observatory, for the purpose of 
making suggestions on this and kindred subjects. The difficulty of 
finding any individual with the scientific knowledge, theoretical 
and practical, necessary to make him a perfectly safe guide in such 
matters is acknowledged to be almost insuperable even in England. 
In India the thing is perfectly impossible, and the pressure of busi¬ 
ness on most persons interested in science is a further ground for 
trusting rather to a Board than to any individual adviser. 
2 s 2 
