400 . Miscellanies. 
however, the assertion of Mr. Gutzlaff be assumed to be rigorously ac- 
curate, it will have to be explained by the circumstance, that as the 
Chinese is esteemed a universal medium of communication between the 
people referred to, it is more extensively taught amongst them than 
even amongst the Chinese themselves. 
r. Du Ponceau enters, at some length, into the nature of the four 
languages, or classes of languages which are embraced in the commu- 
nication of Mr. Gutzlaff. 1. Of the various dialects of the Chinese. 
2. Of the Annamitic languages. 3. Of the languages of Japan and 
the Loo Choo Islands ; and 4. Of the Korean; the two first of which 
are monosyllabic, the two last polysyllabic ; and from all the facts and 
reflections, he concludes, that the circumstance of the Chinese char- 
acters being understood so extensively amongst these people, is not 
owing to any thing inherent in the Chinese characters, in their shape 
or greater perspicuity, but to their connexion with the languages from 
which they were formed, and to the mode in which they have been 
adapted to them. The vernacular languages of Japan, the Loo Choo 
Islands, and Korea, are so different from the Chinese, that it was found 
impossible to apply to them the Chinese system of writing; conse- 
quently, when the people of these countries read the Chinese charac- 
ters, they do not read them in their native language, but in the Chi- 
nese, which they have acquired, but pronounce differently from the 
Chinese themselves. Thisis not the case with the people of Tunkin 
and Cochin China—the Annamites ; their language or languages being 
formed on the model of that of China, with some variations, which they 
learn, in their schools, to correct, and to employ the proper characters 
as a superior orthography, by which they are enabled to read_the Chi- 
nese as well as their own language. 
The Committee recommended that the interesting communications 
of Mr. Gutzlaff and Mr. Du Ponceau, tending as they do, to elucidate 
a contested topic of Oriental philology, be published i the transac- 
tions of the Society. 
Dr. Hare made a verbal communication on the subject of tornadoes, 
and on his electrical theory of their formation, supporting his views by 
reading an extract from a Memoir by M. Peltier, deseribing a destruc- 
tive tornado which occurred near Paris, in June last 
Dr. Hare stated that agreeably to a publication in the Journal des 
Débats for the 19th of July, some losers by this tornado having effect- 
ed insurance against damage from thunder gusts, applied to the insu- 
rers for indemnity, which was refused, upon the plea that a tornado 
was not a thunder gust (orage). The question having been submitted 
_ to Arago, it was by him referred to Peltier. 
