54 
President’s Address. 
[Feb. 
Dr. F. Day’s work on the Fishes of India has been much delayed by the 
death of Mr. Ford, the artist, to whom the plates had been entrusted for 
preparation, and hitherto but one volume has appeared, containing the first 
22 families of Acanthopterygii. Both descriptions and plates appear to be 
all that can be desired. It is to be hoped that, for the advantage of local 
students, who will have some difficulty at first in understanding the descrip¬ 
tions, a complete explanation of all scientific terms used may be appended, 
but the abundance of figures should render it easy to recognize the various 
forms. To the volume there are no less than 68 plates, exquisitely drawn, 
each representing on an average about 6 species. 
When Dr. Day’s work on the Indian fishes is concluded, we shall 
possess hand-books of all the vertebrate classes ; Jerdon’s Mammals and 
Birds, Gunther’s Reptiles and Amphibia, Theobald’s on Reptiles alone and 
Day s on lishes. But with the exception of the last, all these works are 
more or less imperfect, and require considerable additions in order to bring 
them up to the present state of our knowledge. The most imperfect of all 
is perhaps that on the Amphibia, the number of which, known to inhabit 
British' India and its dependencies, has been greatly increased since Dr. 
Gunther’s work was produced. Large and expensive illustrated works are 
not so much needed as books on the model of Jerdon’s, of such size as to be 
easily carried, and containing sufficient descriptions to enable any one with 
a little study to identify the animals he meets with. 
But much as hand-books of Indian Vertebrata are wanted, there is a 
far greater need of similar aids to the study of the Invertebrata. In the 
course of the last few years a beautifully illustrated work on land and fresh¬ 
water shells, the “ Conchologia Indica” of Hanley and Theobald, has been 
published, but I know of no other monograph of any large group of Indian 
invertebiates. The number of students would be greatly increased were 
the means of identifying the animals greater, and even from a practical 
point of view, the only view in which, I regret to say, the majority of the 
world is capable of sympathizing, much good might be done. For instance, 
the injury done yearly by insects to the crops of India is something enor¬ 
mous, without considering the mischief inflicted by our various six-footed 
rivals and enemies in other ways. Yet we scarcely know which kinds of 
insects are to be guarded against, nor what are their natural enemies, and 
any one desirous of ascertaining the species and of learning what is known 
about their habits must search through an extensive library in order to gain 
the information required. 
In time much aid in the preparation of books on Indian natural history 
may be anticipated from the officers of the Indian Museum. The only 
work hitherto commenced on any portion of the invertebrate collection, Mr. 
