120 



Remarks on the Trilobite, and Description of a New Trilobite. By- 

 Jacob Green, M.D. New Haven, 1839. — From the same. 



London Catalogues of Books for 1839. Two Vols. — From Mr. Ed- 

 ward D. Ingraham. 



Popular Lectures on Geology, by R. C. Von Leonhard. Translated 

 by the Rev. J. G. Morris, A.M., and edited by Professor F. Hall, 

 M.D. Baltimore, 1839.-— From the Editor. 



The American Almanac and Repository of Useful Knowledge, for the 

 year 1840. Boston, 1839. — From the Editor. 



FOR THE CABINET. 



A specimen of Iron Ore from the Island of Cuba. — From Mr. R. C. 

 Taylor. 



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 gen- 

 tleman, 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, and 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 different nations, too, who employ the Chinese characters, call 

 them differently, using their own language to designate them, and 

 they, as well as the Chinese themselves, have to learn the meaning of 

 the characters from teachers, who explain them in the dialect spoken 

 amongst the people. The dialects spoken by the different nations, 



