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 nvedium of communication between the 

 people referred to, it is more extensively taught amongst them than 

 even amongst the Chinese themselves. 



Mr. 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. This is 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 in 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, describing a destruc- 

 tive tornado which occurred near Paris, in June last. 



Dr. Hare stated that agreeably to a publication in the Journal des 

 Debats 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. 



