132 SURGEON-GENEEAL SIE C. A. GORDON, M.D., K.C.B., ON 



navigation of the Chinese is considered to have extended as far as 

 Egypt. If it extended to Egypt we may assume, I think, with 

 good ground, that it included the countries between Egypt and 

 China, that is to say, India and so on. When communication 

 between China and the Western nations began has been the 

 subject of a very interesting and learned work recently published. 

 As evidences of this intercommunication it has been alleged that a 

 great many of the silks used by the ladies of ancient Rome were 

 imported from China ; and we lately had a specimen of a small jar 

 or bottle with a Chinese inscription which had been found with an 

 Egyptian mummy. As to the letter asking about the word 

 " gravitation," those who desire to see what I have stated are 

 referred to Gutzlaff's History of China, vol. 1, page 208. It is 

 simply the word that is there made use of, Gutzlaff does not 

 discuss the application of the word though he italicises it. So 

 far as I know, that is the first occasion on which the word itself 

 has been used in literature. 



May I conclude these remarks by mentioning a statement 

 alleged to be historical that may be of interest to others, I 

 daresay those who know it will bear me out in what I say. — 

 It is related that about 600 years after the Christian era, the 

 then reigning Emperor of China heard that there was a new 

 religion of extreme excellence in the far west. Accordingly, an 

 embassy was sent to the west in search of this new religion, which 

 the then Emperor expressed a desire to introduce into his 

 dominions. The embassy proceeded to its task, and having arrived 

 in India they found the persecution of the Buddhists by the 

 Brahmins was in full force. On being questioned the persecuted 

 Buddhists were only too glad to say that they were the represen- 

 tatives of the new religion; indeed, as compared with the Hinduism, 

 they are, and to put it briefly, the story is that these missionaries 

 who were sent to the w^est in search of what we have every 

 reason to believe was Christianity, returned to China in a sort of 

 triumph carrying with them the Buddhist priests. It is an 

 interesting speculation what China might have been to-day, if 

 Christianity had been taken back, as we may believe was in- 

 tended, instead of Buddhism. 



Captain F. Petkie, F.G.S. (Hon. Sec.).— The question of inter- 

 course among nations in early times has been referred to, and the 

 Chinese seem to have borne their part in such intercourse, I may 



