124 Dr. Hoernle — Bloch-Prints from Khotan. [AprIl, 



The following gentlemen are candidates for election at the next 

 meeting: — 



R. N. Mookerjee, Esq., of Messrs. Martin & Co., proposed by 

 Babu Jadu Nath Sen, seconded by R. D. Mehta, Esq. 



J. Bathgate, Esq., proposed by F. Finn, Esq., seconded by W. K, 

 Dods, Esq. 



The following gentlemen have expressed a wish to withdraw from 

 the Society : — 



Dr. A. Crombie. 



T. W. Richardson, Esq. 



Maul vie Abdul Kader. 



Babu Ram Brahma Sanyal, Superintendent of the Alipore Zoologi- 

 cal Gardens, exhibited living specimens of the Egyptian Jerboa {Dipus 

 jaculus). 



The following papers were read : — 



1. A note on some Block-Prints from Khotan. — By Dr. A. F. R. 

 Hoernle, CLE. Plates I-II. 



In my Presidential Address, published in the Proceedings for 

 February last (page 68), I mentioned that I had in my possession 

 twenty-one volumes, which had come from Khotan, in Chinese Turkes- 

 tan. There is one point with regard to these volumes that I omitted 

 to state, which I will now supply. They are not all manuscript books 

 as it might appear from the connection in which I spoke of them. 

 Some of them are block-prints. I had noticed this circumstance long 

 ago, as well as two others, that the block-printed matter repeated 

 itself on every page of the books, and that it was printed in different 

 positions on tbeir alternative pages. As this is a point of considerable 

 interest, the notice of which I had unfortunately missed out in my 

 Address, I will now enter into it a little more fully. 



Most of the twenty-one volumes are certainly manuscripts. With 

 regard to some I am not certain what they are, manuscript or block- 

 print ; but there are others which are undoubtedly block-prints. For 

 on many pages the smudges of the square straiglit-lined margins of the 

 blocks can be distinctly seen. Occasionally the block was provided 

 with a square of raised straight lines enclosing the type, and this 

 marginal square is printed off along with the enclosed type. 



The printing was not always carefully done, occasionally the blocks 

 were inked too much, and the prints are smudgy ; at other times they 

 were inked too little, and the print is almost illegible. When the print 



