M.D., Anatomy, Physiology, Sur- are charged; second-class patients gery, Materia Medica, Therapeutics, pay 28 cash, and have their medietc. The English language has been cines free; private patients visited taught, but the lectures have been at their homes pay $4,00 and chairin Chinese. A proposed pupil passes hire, opium patients pay $4,00, first three months of probation, and though $1,00 is returned, provided is subjected to a physical examina- report is afterward made as to the tion, and to a thorough examina- condition of the patient; vaccination tion upon the Chinese Classics. A at the Dispensary costs 56 cash, at matriculation fee of $5.00 is paid the home $1,00; in-door patients pay at the end of the three months' .05, or .25, or 50 cents a day, accordprobation, and $1.00 a month is ing to their accommodations as first, charged, for tuition. Each student second, or third-class patients; and furnishes his own books, food and opium patient refugees pay $2,00, clothing. The nucleus of a Museum $5,00, or $10,00. The total number has been formed. From the fees of patients is classified as follows: charged, the running expenses (ex- Dispensary, new patients 7,805, old clusive of foreign physicians' sala- 3,670, total 11,475; Hospital, medries, and outlays for instruments ical 37, surgical 39, opium habit, and apparatus) have been met-an 196, total 272; Private patients, expenditure of about $100.00 per foreign 27, native 67, opium-poisonmonth First-class patients, pay 56 ing 18, total 112; Grand total cash on entering, and prescriptions 11, 859. ERRATA.

In the Recorder for August, page 309, third line, for sau read gau.

Diary of Events in The Far East.

July, 1885.

Russian Protectorate of Corea reported. Chinese troops being massed in the Amur region.-Brigands in Taichow, Chekiang.-Troubles reported in Ili from unpaid soldiers.-Foreign population in Shanghai, exclusive of the French Concession, 3,673; Native population, 125,665.-Great floods in South China, and Central Japan. Rainfall during June, in inches, at Ichang 5.77, Hankow 9.29, Kiukiang 14.39, Wuhu 13.89, Chinkiang 9.98, Zikawei 11.42, Hongkong 30.99, Pakoi 25.50.

5th.-Anamites attack the French at Hué, and are repulsed with great loss by Gen. Courcy. The King flees. Ten million [francs ?] taken by the French, and large quantities of silk piece goods.

6th.-H. E. Li Fêng-pao, late Chinese Minister to Berlin, arrives at Shanghai.

7th.-The Empress bestows what are supposed to be her final rewards on those who have distinguished themselves in the South in the war with France.

:

14th.-The Fête Nationale de France celebrated with much expense at Shanghai.

15th.-Corean Custom-house ad Chefoo, the thermometer registers Chemulpo destroyed by fire.-At 980 F.-Relief party under Rev. T. W. Pearce returns from first trip up the West River, Kwangtung.

tween England and China signed.— 17th.-The Opium Convention beHighwater mark at Hankow, 45 feet, 6 inches.

19th.-Water Spout at Wuhu.

20th.-The French Senate votes the ratification of the Tientsin Treaty.The steamers resume their daily trips between Shanghai and Ningpo.

21st. Rev. Messrs Ost, Fulton, and Grundy return from relief trip up the North West River, Kwangtung, having relieved 80 villages, in which were 25,000 people, 3,200 houses hav ing been destroyed.

23rd.-Rev. Thos. W. Pearce reports regarding a relief party up the North River, Kwangtung, that they proceeded 60 miles, visited 42 villages in which 2,084 houses had fallen, and

TO read Dr. Hirth's book aright, it is necessary to have an opinion slightly different from his about the conclusion he reaches, and thankfully accept all the facts he has industriously collected.

Chinese history is a wide subject, and Dr. Hirth is able to throw light on a hundred questions by studying them with that persevering thoroughness which he exhibits in this book. It is to be hoped he will continue to work in the historic field. To have the Chinese text as he gives it is a great advantage. For clearness of method this book is a model. The author's extent of research is rare to meet with. His willingness to work on an antique subject is still rarer. The only wonder is that he has not drawn quite the right conclusion from his body of facts.

In the identification of Ta T'sin and Fo lin as Chinese names for a great western kingdom which sent embassies from A.D. 166 to A.D. 1081, we must work at realities, and not be swayed by the peculiarity of names. Here is the key to the mystery. We must remember also that the knowledge possessed by China of foreign kingdoms has always been in proportion to the power and accessibility of those kingdoms and to the information brought her by travellers.

When we know from Marinus of Tyre, and Ptolemy, that navigation extended from the Roman empire to Catigara beyond the Golden Chersonese, and also know that the Chinese conquered the country in which Catigara is situated at the close of the second century before Christ, and that at about the same time they also sent an expeditionary force on two occasions to Khokand beyond the Tsung ling chain to punish the insolence of the king of that country,

* China and the Roman Orient, as represented in Old Chinese Records, by F. Hirth, Ph. D. Shanghai and Hongkong: Kelly and Walsh; 1885.

can we wonder that Parthia, Syria, Greece, became known at that time? Accordingly we find those countries mentioned but under the names An si, Tiau chï and Li kien. This knowledge may be safely referred to Chang c'hien the traveller.

The defeat of Antiochus and the conquest of Syria by the Romans in the year B.C. 65, made the Roman name known all over Western Asia. It was in B.C. 53, that Crassus was defeated by Orodes, and after the battle many Roman soldiers were sent to Mero, or Margiana and retained there as prisoners. Pliny describes the beauty of this region where the grape flourishes, and surrounding mountains lend a charm to a country favoured with a delicious climate. Chang c'hien had come to the neighbourhood nearly a century earlier. Fifty years before, at a distance from Mera of about 800 miles, a Chinese princess went to be married to an IndoEuropean chief, and wrote the well known verses in which she said she wished she were a wild goose and could fly back to her home, for she was weary with the long separation, the tent life and the endless milk and mutton of the Usun country. In the year B.C. 63, a company of more than a hundred attendants went to share with another princess the loneliness of her home in the same country, now Ili. The history says, they were to learn the Usun language. A colony of Chinese like this, living so far on the way to Europe, might easily learn much respecting western countries knowing as they did the native language. The consequence was that in Panku's history, the account of western countries in Tartary on both sides of the Tsung ling chain (Bolor) is very minute. He is the first to mention the two passes where this chain is crossed. The southern route is by Shan shan or Lulan, edging the Kwun lun chain on the north to the So ku country at or near Yarkand: Crossing the chain the country of Tochasestan or the Indian Geta ♬ or A, is reached and beyond this is Parthia. The northern route leads by Hami

, to Cashgar, crossing the mountains to Ta wan (Khokand) Kangku, Amcha, Inji, etc. The geography is here so clear that the question of the position of Ta wan is quite settled. I formerly thought Bactria was Ta wan* but a fresh reading of Remusat's Fo kwo ki and of Panku, has shewn me that Ta wan was on the Jaxartes where Alexander founded his last city Alexandria Eschatæ. Ta wan was still a Greek colony, but it was in Sogdiana rather than in Bactria, and about 150 miles N.E. of Samarkand.

The result of Panku's increased knowledge is seen at once on comparing his descriptions with those of Si ma c'hein. He is as minute upon Kang ku situated on the lower course of the Jaxartes

Journal of the North China Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, 1881, Art. I. "What did the Chinese know of the Greeks and Romans ?"

and to the north of it, as upon Ta wan on the upper course of the same river. He is also minute in describing Cabul (Ko pin) Kunduz and Bokhara (Yue ti).

The earliest mention of the Roman Empire under the name Ta t'sinis in Poem on the Eastern Capital (Lo yang) by Chang ping tsz who wrote it about A.D. 120. He must have known the word through the inquiries of Pan c'hau the successful diplomatist, who twenty five years before brought the Turkish provinces into subjection to China. Pan c'hau sent a subordinate Kan ying to visit Rome. By this, he meant him to visit the great empire of which, through the Asiatic campaigns of Vespasian and Titus especially in Judea, he had heard much. It was the destruction of Jerusalem more than any other single event that made known Rome. A busy trade with India would follow; for the twenty or thirty years after the event, A.D. 70, till the mission of Kan ying, were times of peace in the Asiatic provinces, yet it may have been the Hindoo translators of Buddhist books in the years A.D. 67, 63, who were the first that told the Chinese court about Rome. Rome had in those times a busy trade with the east through Alexandria as Pliny shows. Among other things he says the trade with India amounted to £750,000. Now in the Buddhist books of China, the Roman empire is always called Ta T'sin, and for this there must be some Sanscrit equivalent. This has not yet been made known. The Indians knew of Rome by the commerce at their sea ports. In the first and second centuries after Christ, there is an interval in the Buddhist translations from the year A.D. 60 to A.D. 146. During three quarters of a century no new translations are recorded as having been made. But we find the reason of this in the history. The central of the Turkish provinces was let go till A.D. 127. Then Cashgar and Khoten, with other states to the number of seventeen, sent embassies of submission. The way was then open for new Buddhist missionaries to come to China.

Among the Buddhist missionaries who came to China soon after A.D. 140, was a Parthian prince who was there from A.D. 148 to 170. He is fourth in the list of translators in the Tang dynasty catalogue, The third was an Indo-Gete from Kunduz or Balkh. He was engaged in translating from A.D. 147 to 186. He translated in Honan, and the two Chinese assistants who wrote his versions into good Chinese are named in his biography. It was by these men that the principles of transcription were fixed. The character was then called But. was Ba. was La. Abidharma was spelled Ft Abidam. Kashiapa was 迦葉 Kashap. Agama was 阿合. Shariputra was 舍利弗 Sha li put. The letters b, and p, g and k, d and t, are kept