The Indian museum, 1814-1914.

  • Indian Museum.
Date:
1914
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: The Indian museum, 1814-1914. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by UCL Library Services. The original may be consulted at UCL (University College London)

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    contradiction, that all the research work not only in zoology and geology but also in meteorology and archaeology, now undertaken by different Government Departments, owes its origin in the activities of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, and for many years the Museum in the rooms of the Society was the chief centre of such work in this country The study and investigation of Applied Science, more particularly Botany and Chemistry, also had a similar origin. The history of the development of the different sections of the Museum, since they came under our control, has, however, been so varied that it is only in zoology that it is possible to establish a claim for anything approaching a monopoly for the Indian Museum. The geological section, from the time of the foundation of the Geological Survey, has been incorporated therewith; the economic or industrial section has always been associated with the office of the Reporter on Economic Products to the Government of India , or, as he is now designated, the Economic Botanist to the Botanical Survey ; the archaeological collections have been lent to the Director General of Archaeology in India. The zoological section, on the other hand, has never been amalgamated at any time with an Imperial Survey Depart- ment, though we are now within measurable distance of the official recognition of the undoubted claims of zoology as a science pre-eminently useful and important, and of the foundation at no distant date of an Imperial Zoological Surrey. The result of the position thus accidentally held in the past by the zoological section has been that the research work accomplished by our officers in this depart- ment is embodied in the long series of monographs and in the periodical publications issued by the Trustees of the Indian Museum. The '/ Records of the Indian Museum, which constitutes a Journal of Indian Zoology, has now reached its ninth volume, while the Memoirs, of which four volumes have been hitherto published, include many original papers of first-rate importance, embodying the result of much patient and laborious investigation. The highly tech- nical nature of these publications has served effectually to conceal their contents from the public, who are apt to judge