200 



made since the last meeting of the Society, on the rarefaction 

 of moist and dry air. 



Prof. Bache presented a chart of the magnetic observations 

 made on the 2Sth of February last, in which he was assisted 

 by Mr. Walker and Mr. Kendall. He farther called the at- 

 tention of the Society to the recent publication of Prof. Gauss, 

 in regard to the simultaneous changes of magnetic intensity at 

 places as far apart as Gottingen and Munich. 



Dr. Dunglison read a letter from the Rev. James T. Dickin- 

 son, of Singapore, to Mr. Du Ponceau, dated Nov. 25, 1839, 

 expressing his satisfaction with the views of Mr. Du Ponceau, 

 as contained in his " Dissertation on the Chinese System of 

 Writing." 



When Mr. Dickinson commenced the study of the Chinese lan- 

 guage, nearly four years ago, he attempted to learn the written 

 language by the eye merely, without connecting sounds with the 

 characters. To this course he was led by the fact, that the Hok- 

 kien dialect, the one he studies, differs very much, as spoken, from 

 the sounds given to the characters as read. His plan was to learn 

 the colloquial language by itself, and to defer the learning of the 

 sounds given to the characters in reading, while, in the meantime, he 

 endeavoured to learn to read the characters independently of all 

 sounds. In this way he would have succeeded in learning to read 

 Chinese books, had the common hypothesis, that the Chinese charac- 

 ters are addressed directly to the mind, and not to the mind through 

 the medium of sounds, been correct. Mr. Dickinson, however, found 

 himself always translating either into English or the colloquial 

 Chinese. All his efforts to transfer the ideas represented in Chinese 

 books to his own mind, without the help of words, either Chinese or 

 English, were fruitless. 



Mr. Dickinson considers the work of Mr. Du Ponceau " a most 

 valuable gift to the world, and an honour to American learning." 



Dr. Dunglison referred to a curious but not unique case, of a 

 worm in the eye of a horse now in Baltimore. 



The particulars were contained in a letter to him, from Dr. Joshua 

 J. Cohen, of Baltimore. This entozoon is a species of filaria, (see Fila- 

 ria Papillosa, Rudolphi, Synops. p. 213) probably from 3J to 4 inches 



