CHAPTER VIIL 
THE BIOLOGICAL WORK OF THE MARINE 
SURVEY OF INDIA. 
It may at first sight appear somewhat out of place in a 
volume of which the purport is to celebrate the Centenary 
of the Indian Museum, that a chapter should be devoted 
to an account of the biological work of a marine survey; 
but the connection between the Museum and the Surgeon- 
Naturalist’s ‘‘ department ”—if one may employ such a term 
to describe an association of but three individuals—has 
always been a close one, for both can claim the Asiatic 
Society of Bengal as their alma mater and from the com¬ 
mencement of the work the biological collections of the 
Marine Survey have found a resting place in, and have even¬ 
tually become the property of, the Indian Museum. More¬ 
over, since the creation of the appointments, the artist of 
the Marine Survey has always been accommodated in the 
Museum and the Surgeon-Naturalist, when not at sea on the 
survey ship, is attached to the Museum and is provided .by 
the Trustees with the necessary laboratory. Of late years 
the link between the two departments has become even 
stronger, for the Trustees have honoured the Surgeon-Natural¬ 
ist by appointing him an Honorary Assistant in the Zoologi¬ 
cal and Anthropological Section, and on several occasions in 
the past this officer has officiated as Superintendent of the 
Museum. 
The history of the biological work of the Marine Survey 
of India dates back to the year 1871. During the preceding 
decade the science of biology had been making rapid pro¬ 
gress and many time-honoured theories and beliefs were 
being overthrown ; many zoologists, among whom one may 
be mentioned in particular, Dr. G. C. Wallich, formerly of the 
Bombay Medical Service and naturalist with M’Clintock’s 
North Atlantic Expedition of 1860, had been attempting to 
prove, with more or less success, that the ocean bed was not. 
