]^44 [February. 



Stated 3Ieetmg, February 20, 1863. 



Present, twenty-four members. 

 Dr. Wood, President, in the Chair. 



A letter accepting membership, was received from Dr. I. 

 I. Hayes, dated United States Army Hospital, West Phila- 

 delphia, February 2d, 1863, and afterwards Dr. Hayes was 

 presented to the President, and took his seat. 



Letters acknowledging the receipt of publications were re- 

 ceived from the Literary and Historical Society of Quebec, 

 dated February 9th, requesting also a set of the Transac- 

 tions ; the Corporation of Yale College, February 11th, and 

 Harvard College, February 4th ; the Connecticut and New 

 Jersey Historical Societies, 25th and 11th; the New York 

 State Library, February 9th ; Captain Gilliss, National Ob- 

 servatory, February 3d, and the Chicago Historical Society, 

 February 9th, 1863. 



Donations for the Library were received from the Boston 

 Natural History Society, Professor Hall, of Albany, the 

 Chief Engineer of the Philadelphia Water Works, the Colo- 

 nization Society, the Franklin Institute, the House of Refuge, 

 the Deaf and Dumb Institution, through James J. Barclay, 

 Esq., and the State Lunatic Hospital at Harrisburg. 



The death of a member of the Society, Dr. Carl Ludwig 

 Rlimker, Director of the Hamburg Observatory, aged 71, 

 was announced by the Secretary. 



Mr. Chase, referring again to the Chinese Hong seal ex- 

 hibited at the last meeting, made some remarks upon the 

 similarity and probable historical connection between the 

 Chinese syllabic characters, and the Hebrew and other alpha- 

 bets. The character Sin, on the seal, would be a proper 

 hieroglyph for final n, and it is often written in a form cor- 

 responding to an old Punic n. This coincidence in two out 

 of four casual characters, is curious. Out of the twenty-two 

 letters of the Hebrew alphabet, Mr. Chase considers that at 

 least fifteen can be selected, which bear meanings identical 

 with meanings attached to similar forms among the Chinese 

 root characters, and every letter of the Roman alphabet has 



