History of the Parsis : including their manners, customs, religion and present position : with coloured and other illustrations : in two volumes

CHAP. II.] MR. DINSHA PETIT. 137

a generous heart and by a sense of duty. Even poor dumb animals have not been left out of the pale of his sympathy. It was only last year that he gave the handsome sum of Rs.45,000 to the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, for building a hospital for the care and treatment of the poor silent creatures that cannot take care of themselves. This Society was formed in Bombay a few years ago under the presidency of the Hon. Mr. Justice Bayley, and owes much of its success and the good it does to that learned and humane judge.

Through the generosity of Mr. Dinsha charitable dispensaries have been established in Bombay and several places in Gujarat. He has spent thousands of rupees in supplying water to Poona, Ahmednagar, and other places by digging wells and tanks. He is a prominent supporter of charitable schools, libraries, and book clubs, and a ready patron of poor and needy students. He is a great champion of vernacular literature. He has subscribed most liberally to many books that have been published within the last twenty years, and has distributed them among his employés as well as others who apply to him for them. Through his munificence a hospital for incurable lepers has been established at Ratnagiri. He has always been the largest contributor to the building of fire-temples and towers of silence in various places. His contributions to the sufferers from famine,