112 
THE INDIAN MUSEUM: 1814—1914. 
He will also be remembered as one of the earliest advo¬ 
cates of a Zoological Garden for Calcutta, and as one of the 
experts who greatly assisted in giving shape to that Institu¬ 
tion when it was started. 
Dr. W. T. Blanford, than whom there is no one more 
competent to speak at first hand, has already, in Nature,” 
given a review of his scientific work, from which the following 
paragraphs are extracted ; — 
His arrival in Calcutta was at a fortunate time. The 
Asiatic Society of Bengal had gradually come into the posses¬ 
sion of a large collection, not only of the archaelogical remains, 
manuscripts, coins and similar objects, for the study of which 
the Society was originally established, but also of zoological 
and geological specimens in large numbers In the course of 
the preceding quarter of a century the collections had in¬ 
creased, chiefly through the work of Edward Blyth, the 
Curator, until the Society’s premises were crowded, and the 
Society’s funds no longer sufficed for the proper preservation 
and exhibition of the specimens collected. After long negotia¬ 
tions, interrupted by the disturbances of 1857, arrangements 
were completed in 1864 by which the archaeological and zoo¬ 
logical collections of the Society (the geological specimens 
had been previously transferred) were taken over by the Gov¬ 
ernment of India, who undertook to build a new museum in 
Calcutta, of which the Society’s collections would form the 
nucleus. The Trustees appointed by the Government to man¬ 
age the new Museum asked the Secretary of State for India 
to select a curator, and Dr. J. Anderson was nominated for 
the post early in 1865. His status was changed, a few years 
later, to that of Superintendent of the Museum, and in addi¬ 
tion to his museum work he became Professor of Comparative 
Anatomy at the Medical College, Calcutta. He held both 
offices until his retirement from India in 1886. 
The time at which Dr. Anderson arrived in India was 
fortunate in another respect. It coincided with a great im¬ 
pulse given to Indian zoology by the publication of Jerdon’s 
Birds of India,” the last volume of which appeared in 1864, 
and with the presence in Calcutta of a larger number of men 
interested in the study of the fauna than were assembled 
