398 Miaccllantes, 
Association, and under the advice of the Royal Society, for obtain- 
ing a series of magnetic observations in different quarters of the globe, 
in conjunction with a naval expedition in the southern hemisphere, 
under the command of Capt. James Clark Ross, and read extracts 
from letiers of Professor Lloyd and Major Sabine, relating to the 
preparation for the undertaking. 
Professor Bache further stated, that on submitting the circular ad- 
dressed to him by the Foreign Secretary of the Royal Society, with 
extracts from the letters before referred to, and other information as 
to the nature and importance of the results to be obtained by this com- 
bined system of magnetic observations, to the Building Committee of 
the Girard College, through their Architect, they had, with creditable 
liberality, given orders for the erection of an observatory suited to the 
observations contemplated, and to the instruments already in the pos- 
session of the Trustees of the College. 
Professor Bache submitted the plans of the observatory drawn by 
Thos. U. Walter, Esq. Architect. | 
Mr. Justice made some remarks in continuation of those offered at 
the last meeting of the Society, in support of his opinion of a gyrato- 
ry motion in the tornado, of the 31st. July, 1839, the destructive ef- 
fects of which were felt about seventeen miles north of Philadelphia. 
October 4, 1839.—The Committee, consisting of Dr. Dunglison, Mr. 
Kane, and Mr. Lea, to whom were referred a letter of the Rev. Charles 
Gutzlaff to John Vaughan, Esq. dated Macao, January 2, 1839, and 
the letter of Peter S. Du Ponceau, Esq. to the same gentleman, dated 
Philadelphia, September 20, 1839, made their report, which was read 
and accepted. 
The communication of Mr. Gutzlaff was suggested by the disserta- 
tion of Mr. Du Ponceau, “ On the nature and character of the Chinese 
system of writing.” As the results of his reflection and observation, 
Mr. Gutzlaff affirms, that China was the great centre of civilization, 
whence it diverged to all the countries of Eastern and Southern Asia; 
the colonists from China driving the autochthonous tribes into the 
mountains, aad incorporating the country itself, including ‘Tunkin and 
Annam, with the central kingdom. A constant influx of Chinese also 
took place into Korea, but the emigration to Japan and the Loo Choo 
Islands was less extensive. 
Chinese words, and the Chinese art of writing, were thus introduced 
into these countries ; Chinese books became their literature; and, like 
the Latin in the middle ages, the Chinese was the language of the 
learned. . Yet all the nations that have adopted the Chinese mode of 
writing, speak a language more or less distinct from the written idiom. 
The di nations, too, who employ the Chinese characters, call 
