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IV.-Register of the fall of rain, in inches, at Dacca, from 1827 to 1834. By Dr. G. W. LAMB.

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V.-Register of the Thermometer at Ambála, for 1834. By M. P. EDGEWORTH, Esq. C. S.

[Having a great many registers of daily observations on hand, for which we have hitherto been unable to find space, we have been obliged to confine ourselves to the publication of monthly abstracts; but we have prepared a copperplate, in which we hope shortly to exhibit the daily observations both of Barome. ter and Thermometer for many localities in the same view, and in very limited space.-ED.]

I have the pleasure of enclosing a register of the thermometer at this place for last year. The temperature during the hot weather is probably considerably too high, in consequence of the situation of the thermometers in the fort town where I then resided; but I hope this year to obtain a fairer estimate, as I have now moved into a bungalow, and the thermometers are placed in the north veranda, very little exposed to glare, &c. Finding that there was scarcely any dif ference between the means deduced from the extreme temperature during the day and that from the temperature at 10 A. M. and 10 P. M., I have discontinued the latter. For the greater part of the year the maximum and minimum are the extremes, according to the register thermometer; but as frequently I am absent from this place on business in the district, a native (on whose accuracy I can place confidence) registers the temperature at sunrise, and at half past two in the cold, and three in the hot, season, which I have observed to be the hottest time of the day respectively.

Note. The thermometers used were self-registering ones; that for the minimum with a metal scale by NEWMAN; that for the maximum, with a wooden scale by HAMILTON. They were placed in a niche in a wall facing the north, but exceedingly exposed to glare in the upper (3rd) story of the fort, a large mass of brick, which consequently became exceedingly heated, and was slow in cooling in the hot weather; therefore the temperature stood considerably higher than it would have done in the veranda of a bungalow or house, and cannot be fairly compared with registers made in other places in consequence.

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VI.-Proceedings of the Asiatic Society.

Wednesday Evening, 5th August, 1835.

The Honorable Sir EDWARD RYAN, President, in the Chair.

Mr. C. BINNY, proposed at the last meeting, was balloted for, and duly elected a Member of the Society.

The Secretary read the following reply from Government, to the appli cation made, in conformity with the resolution of last meeting.

To the Honorable Sir EDWARD RYAN, Knt.

HONORABLE SIR,

President of the Asiatic Society.

I am directed by the Governor General of India in Council, to acknow ledge the receipt of your letter, communicating the request of the Asiatic Society, that the whole of the Oriental Works, the publication of which, at the expence of the Fund for Education, has lately been discontinued by order of Government, and those that have been reserved by Government for completion, may be made over to the Asiatic Society, with a view to their completion, at the expence and under the superintendence of the Society.

2. The Governor General in Council is glad to accede to the wishes of the Society, and the necessary Instructions will be issued to the General Committee of Public Instruction, to transfer the publications accordingly. I have the honor to be, &c. (Signed) G. A. BUSHBY, Secretary to Government.

Council Chamber, the 15th July, 1835.

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Referred to the Committee of Papers, who will take measures for the receipt and accommodation of the Books, and for the immediate continuation of the works now in the press. Resolved also, that a book of subscriptions be circulated among the members, with a Prospectus specifying the price of each work.

Read the following letter from the Honorable Mr. GEORGE TURNOur, of Ceylon, acknowledging his election as an Honorary Member.

SIR,

To the Secretary to the Bengal Asiatic Society, Calcutta.

I beg to express my gratified acknowledgments for the honor conferred on me by the Bengal Asiatic Society, in electing me an Honorary Member of their Institution.

Highly as I should, at any time, and under any circumstances, appreciate this compliment, I consider myself peculiarly fortunate in receiving it, at a time when I am engaged in the translation of a valuable historical work in the Páli language. In addition to the data from which the "Epitome of the History of Ceylon," (published in the Local Almanac for 1833, and presented to your Society by the Right Honorable the Governor,) was compiled, this work contains, besides detached historical fragments, a chronologically connected Buddhistical History of India, from B. C. 590, to B. C. 307.

It is within that interesting period, that the invasion of India, by ALEXANDER, and the Embassy of MEGASTHENES to Palibothra, took place; which in their results formed the earliest connecting link between the Histories of the East and West. The account given in the commentary on his work, by the Páli historian, of the Indian monarch of that period, "CHANDAGUTTO," closely resembles JUSTINUS' sketch of that usurper's character under the name of "SANDRA COTTOS."

In point of time also, this Páli History accords with the Chronology of the Histories of the West, with considerable accuracy. The reigns of ALEXANDER and SELEUCUS NICATOR comprised the period from about B. C. 336, to B. C. 280, according to the latter authorities; while the Páli historian assigns to the reign of their contemporary" Chandagutto," the period from B. C. 385, to B. C. 351.

The valuable information brought to light by the researches of Mr. HODGSON and M. CSOMA DE KÖRÖS, and published in your Journal, in reference to Buddhism, will be confirmed, or further elucidated, by this more ancient authority, on several important points.

After the disappointments which have hitherto attended the labor of orientalists in their search for historical annals, comprehensive in data and consistent in their chronology, a translation alone of a Páli History of such extensive pretensions, would be justly received with repulsing scepticism, as to its authenticity, by the literary world. I have therefore decided on publishing the text also in Roman characters, pointed with diacritical marks. The entire work will occupy, with its supplementary notes and explanations, about 1200 pages of quarto. As the publication however is undertaken entirely at my own expence, and possibly official demands on my time may prevent the early completion of the whole work, the reception the first volume may meet with, and other circumstances, over which I can exercise no control, will hereafter decide whether I proceed beyond that volume.

While this quarto is in the press, a few copies in octavo of the early chapters are also in progress of being printed for me. These, I purpose, in a few weeks, to distribute among the Literary Societies, prefixed to copies of the " Epitome."

I invite the Members of the Asiatic Society, who have done me the honor to associate me with them, to enter upon a criticism of this work. I allude not to the translation (for the disadvantages or advantages under which I perform the unpretending task of translating, will be undisguisedly stated); but on the original work. If, as I believe, it will stand the test of that scrutiny, the foundation, I conceive, will then be laid for the development and adaptation to chronological order, of a vast mass of historical data, connected with India, which are now scattered in detached fragments amongst the voluminous religious Páli records still extant in this island; and I trust also, that the attention of orientalists will thereby at last be directed to the examination of the Páli works so often alluded to by Colonel ToD and others, as being still in existence in the Rajput and other western divisions of India.

I remain, &c.

GEORGE TURNOUR.

Kandy, 10th July, 1835. Several Members present expressed a desire to possess Mr. TURNOUR'S work, and 12 copies were at once subscribed for, The communication was referred to the Committee of Papers, to consider how the objects of the author could be best promoted.

Read a reply of the Bishop of Cochin China, to the Secretary's letter, dated 2nd April, forwarding a portion of the MSS. Dictionaries prepared by him for publication. Referred to the Committee of Papers.

The Secretary intimated the completion of a revised catalogue of the Society's Library, of which copies were distributed to the Members present.

Library.

Read a letter from ARTHUR AIKIN, Esq. Secretary to the Royal Society of Arts, &c. acknowledging the receipts of vols. 17 and 18, of the Asiatic Researches, and forwarding for presentation,

Transactions of that Society for the sessions 1833-34.

The following books were also presented:

Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London, Parts I. and II., for the year 1834-by the Society.

Descriptive and Illustrated Catalogue of the Physiological Series of Comparative Anatomy, contained in the Museum of the Royal College of Surgeons in London, vol. 2nd-by the College.

The Indian Journal of Medical Science, Nos. 19 and 20-by the Editors.
Madras Journal of Literature and Science, No. 8-by the Mad. Lit. Soc.

A copy of the Kifayah, a Treatise on the Questions of Muhammedan Law, by Hakim Maulaví ABDUL MOJID, and presented by the author.

A collection of Witty Sayings in Urdu-by Rája Kalikishan Bahádur.
Meteorological Register for June, 1835-by the Surveyor General.

A Lecture on the Vendidad Sádí of the Parsis, delivered at Bombay, on the 19th and 26th June, 1833; also, an Exposure of the Hindu Religion, in reply to Mora Bhatta Dandekara, and, a Second Reply to Nárayana Rao of Satara-by the author, the Rev. John Wilson.

The following books were received from the booksellers:

Illustrations of Indian Zoology, from Major-General HARDWICKE'S Collection of Indian Animals.

Illustrations of the Botany and other branches of the Natural History of the Himalayan Mountains, and of the Flora of Cashmere, by J. F. ROYLE, Esq. F. L. S., and G. S. M. R. A. S.

Lardner's Cabinet Cyclopedia-
Library of Useful Knowledge-

-Foreign Eminent Men, vol. 1st.
-Vaud's Algebraical Geometry.

A cylindric pedestal, containing on its surface the three principal divisions of the year in use in India; viz. the siderial, the luni-solar, and the lunar, contrived to exhibit on inspection the corresponding day of the European Calendar, by revolving rings, was presented by the Secretary.

Literary and Antiquities.

Read a letter from Ensign NEWBOLD, forwarding an account of Sungie Ujong, one of the states in the interior of Malacca, with statistical information obtained from native sources.

Mr. NEWBOLD also transmitted an original Malay letter from a claimant to the sovereignty of Menangkábowe, to Mr. WESTERHOUT, a gentleman of influence at Malacca, couched in the following laconic terms, and sealed with a signet large enough to cover the whole of the writing, (similar but double the diameter of those published in Plate XII. of the present vol.)

-"The peace of God, &c. &c." "There are three hereditary kings in this world, viz. the kings of Rúm, China, and Paggarúyong (Menangkábowe). Should you acknowledge my descent, you will answer this epistle.'

A description of the Ruins of the Temple of Harshú Deva, in the Shekáwati country, by Sergeant E. DEAN, in illustration of an accurate fac-simile of the ancient Sanscrit inscription discovered there and taken off by himself, was read; together with a translation of the inscription and notes upon the whole, by the Rev. Dr. MILL, V. P.

[Published in the present No.]

A description of Pugan, the ancient capital of the Burmese Empire, by Col. BURNEY, with a Drawing of the Town, by Mrs. BURNEY, was submitted. [Published in the present number.] Physical.

Ensign NEWBOLD transmitted eight specimens of Tin, cast in native moulds, from the principal mines in the Malay Peninsula; also, the crude ore from Salangore and Sriminantí, with a request that they should be submitted to analysis.

[This shall be done as soon as leisure will permit.]

Also a small phial of the Spoh or Upas poison (Toxicaria) used by the aborigines of the interior of Sungie Ujong, to tip their arrows.

A letter from Dr. BENZA, Surgeon to the Governor of Madras, forwarded for presentation, a Geological Sketch of the Neilgherries, (Nílgiris,) illustrated by a coloured map, and by a series of specimens of the rocks and minerals of the range.

Duplicate specimens of the Minerals of South-India in the Museum of the Madras Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, were presented by the Secretary Mr. J. C. MORRIS.

Dr. J. G. MALCOLMSON forwarded by the same opportunity a series of specimens of the Zeolites, from the trap formation in the vicinity of Poona, with notes on the most curious of them; also a specimen of the native Carbonate of Magnesia, now becoming an article of Export from Madras. [We propose noticing these further after analysis.]

Lieut. W. E. BAKER, Engineers, presented notices and drawings of some of the fossils of the Dadupur Museum, particularly the fossil elk, the horse, the hog, the hyena, the buffalo, &c.

From Lieut. H. M. DURAND, Engineers, were also received and submitted, notes on the fossil Hippopotamus of the Sub-Himalayas, with accurate pen illustrations.

G

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