482 PROCEEDINGS. 
our laws it is necessary, as the Secretary has mentioned in the 
minutes, to propose an honorary member at one meeting and 
elect him at another. The Council therefore now propose that 
Mr. P. J. Hughes be appointed an Honorary Member of this 
Society. Those who are in favour of this proposition will now 
kindly signify it by holding up their hands. 
The motion was then carried unanimously amid hearty applause. 
The Cuairman:—The only new member elected during the interval 
is Mr. George Taylor. As there is no further business to transact 
I will now call upon General Mesny to read his paper. 
General Mesyy:—Mr. Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen,—The 
modern name of Yunnan is said to be derived from a range of 
mountains, on its northern frontier, called the 22 4a Yun ling. 
In speaking of Yunnan generally, the whole province is meant, but 
the same name is also applied to a prefecture in the same province. 
It is the chief or principal one of fourteen prefectures, hence it is 2 
called the Pf ff Shou Fu or Chief Prefecture, but its proper name 
is Yiinnan Fu. Besides these, there is also a country called Yiinnan oe 
Hsien, in the prefecture of Ta-li Fu. All this similarity of names 
is rather confusing to strangers. In official documents, literary 
essays, and poetical effusions, the character Wt Tien is used to. 
represent the whole region known to us as Yunnan, and the 
combination it FF Tien-Sheng is used in like manner to designate 
the provincial capital. The name Tien is derived from YE fa] Tien Kuo, 
which was the name of an independent nation of the Lolo tribes, 
occupying that region before the Christian era. Hence the use of 
the character Ji Tien as a convenient phonetic for the {ere 
of that immense province, otherwise called Yunnan, : 
The superficial area of Yunnan is over 100,000 English equare: 
miles. It extends through seven degrees of latitude and eight 
degrees of longitude, and is thus larger than Italy, but not, near 8° 
densely populated as the Italian kingdom. ‘The population of 
Yunnan has been variously estimated by the Chinese Government 
as well as by individual collectors of such statistics, at from 
$ to 17 millions, : ae? 
