OF ARTS AND SCIENCES. 51 



" Long, of Asc. Node, 129° 18'. 

 Inclination, 1° 42' 26". 

 Eadius Vector, 30.000. 

 Daily motion, 21".709. 



Long, at the Opposition, 326° 44' 31". Mean Eq., Jan. 1st, 1846. 

 Gr. M. S. T. of Opposition, Aug. 19th, 706-1847. 

 " Supposing the orbit nearly circular, the time of revolution would 

 be about 164 years." 



Dr. Hale read a memorandum on the meteorology of the 

 past season, and especially of the present month, as compared 

 with former years. 



John Bacon, Jr., M. D., was elected a Fellow of the Acad- 

 emy. 



Two hundred and ninety-ftrst Meeting. 



February 2, 1847. — Monthly Meeting. 



The President in the chair. 



Mr. S. P. Andrews exhibited several large charts or dia- 

 grams of Chinese syllabic words, and others of Chinese writ- 

 ten characters, which he explained. He regretted the absence 

 of several Fellows of the Academy who had expressed an in- 

 terest in his investigations, and especially of Professor Agassiz, 

 who at a previous meeting wished to know in what the views 

 put forth by Mr. A. differed from those of the distinguished 

 French sinalogue, M. Callery, author of Systema Phoneticuiii 

 Scripturm SiniccB. Mr. Andrews said, that he ventured to 

 dissent entirely from the main feature of M. Callery's system 

 in the theoretical point of view. 



" The Chinese language consists of no more than 450 words, all 

 of which are regarded as monosyllables, though a few of them are 

 not strictly so. These we may designate, for convenience of refer- 

 ence, syllabic words. By the use of different tones in the utterance 

 of these words, a greater circle of effective and distinct words is 

 gained, amounting by the estimate of Abel Eemusat to 1203 ; the 

 syllable, as to its vocal apd consonantal elements, remaining the same. 



