130 SUKGEON-GENERAL SIE C. A. GOKDON, M.D., K.C.B,^ ON 



The Chairman (Professor E. Hull, LL.D., F.R.S.)- — I am sure 

 you have already expressed, by your applause, the gratification 

 you have had in listening to this very interesting communication, 

 which shows us through what a vast and interesting period of time 

 these wonderful people and their historic record can be traced 

 back. I will invite discussion thereon after some communications 

 have been read. 



Captain F. Peteie, F.G.S. (Hon. Secretary). — The first letter is 

 from the President, who greatly regrets that he is detained at 

 Cambridge and is therefore unable to be pi'esent. 



The second is from the Rev. Dr. Legge (Pi'ofessor of Chinese at 

 Oxford), who says : — 



" Many thanks for the proof copy of the interesting paper on 

 ' China's place in Ancient History.' I wish it were in my power 

 to be present on Monday, but I am sufi^ering from a persistent 

 cold, which has kept me for several weeks almost entirely indoors. 

 May I ask you to say to Surgeon-General Gordon how sorry I am 

 not to be able to be present, to hear him read the paper." 



The thix-d is a letter from a student of ancient history. He says : — 



" In regard to this paper I would venture to remark that the 

 mention of the law of Gravitation by Mencius 500 years B.C., 

 and 2,000 years before Newton, may not necessarily imply that 

 Newton's theory of gravitation had been anticipated by Mencius." 



A Member. — It may interest some present if the author will 

 kindly give a sketch as to in what form and how the records 

 referring to the early portion of Chinese history have been con- 

 veyed to us ? Research is showing this in a special manner as 

 regards the Babylonian and Egyptian records. 



A Visitor asked if there were many ancient records referring to 

 Chinese intercourse with other nations. 



The Author. — Of course a paper on so large a subject as 

 mine must be but a summary and entirely tentative. The diffi- 

 culties I had in arranging and formulating such data as I have 

 given, I think will be understood by all scholars. One speaker 

 asked as to how the ancient records were preserved. An account 

 of that is given by many writers on China — first and foremost 

 by our respected friend, Dr. Legge. The earliest form of 

 Chinese writing is described as that of the "tadpole" character; 

 the first idea of " writing " assigned to Folii, who conceived 

 it from observing the markings on the shell of a tortoise. 

 About the time of Confucius, it appears that • the records 



