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the preferable term. The Greek word, of course means, upon the testes or didymus. The vulva finds itself nowhere separately represented in Chinese. It occurs however in the name of the glands of Bartholine and called ch'an měn (9), but why this character is adopted in preference to yin men () I know not. The word ch'an is restricted to a certain period and condition of life, and moreover does not cover all the ground, although in a general sort of way it may be applicable. As a book term for pudendum it is deficient. The expression for mons veneris—ts'uan pai () has baffled all solution. The first character means to ascend the throne and the second is the colour white. I take refuge in its being a wrong character. In the Lei ching() I find the term ts'uan applied to a portion of the perinæum. A suitable expression for the part would be yin fu (4). The fundus of the uterus is called ting (J); of the bladder and heart ti (). What is the reason of this deviation? It cannot be simply that the fundus is situated at the top, for then the heart, should have been also so called; nor because it is the narrowest part, for then this part of the bladder should have been so called. The ting here should have been ti, irrespective of its position above or below. The word ting necessarily implies something narrower than the body or t'i () which it is not in this case. The Fallopian tubes and ovaries are as a matter of course called lan kwan () and lan ho (9). The ovaries as testes muliebres of Galen are not incorrectly called from their analogy to the testes in the male although I should have preferred to have adopted other terms. We have the option of taking ching() instead of lan for the ovaries and tube. The Japanese have taken the word lan chao (). The use of this character lan (1) may perhaps be taken as illustrative of what we have said about the differences ruling in different places. It is awkward and vulgar at Peking when applied to the testes and cognate subjects. As formerly stated lan tse (7) is here a term of reproach. In a similar way in the South we have a term applied to a little boy, without any disrespect, which is here only applied to the litter of animals and is a term of disrespect. Servants or boys of foreigners we believe also so designate themselves, but here the use of the word is quite out of place. A host of misspelt English words—the result of printer's errors and careless proof-reading—are to be found on nearly every page. Take the following as additions to those already given-"opthalmic" for ophthalmic, "vena carva" for vena cava, "fibio" for fibro, "sack" for sac, "humor" for humour, "omenta' for omentum, "Pyers" for Pyer's, "solitary and Peyer's gland" for glands, "perineal" for perinæal, "Meckels" for Meckel's. In Chinese the large rh () has dropped down opposite concha. It has lost its place

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and ought to be opposite the division preceding. The naming of some branches of the internal iliac artery are defective. The obturator is called simply basin artery, as if it were the only artery in the pelvis. This comes of calling the obturator foramen of the pelvis pen kung ; a very loose and defective term, as if it were the only opening in the pelvis. It is apt to be confounded with the upper and lower outlets. The name might have been derived from thyroid, by which name, the part is also called, or a new and distinctive name might have been given to it from our Latin word. The Japanese have adopted so kung (L). The sciatic artery is called kau moh), a mistake originating from calling the ischium kau kuh, which has already been pointed out. The naming of the branches of the popliteal are slovenly printed in English, and the contractions have not been necessitated by want of space. Take for example:

Superior ex articular: instead of Superior external articular.

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If the form is to be retained, surely a P.D. knows to put a period after contracted words and commas where the word is to be repeated. In the naming of the various parts we have the mixing up of English and Latin names indiscriminately. This must be considered a blemish. They should either have been all Latin or all English. In this way not a few errors of spelling have crept in-the Latin and English, being as a rule differently spelt-the former retaining the diphthongs, for example, the latter discarding them.

The anterior and posterior nares of the nose are correctly called kung (F), but if these be correct what of the nasal fossae, which are called right and left holes of the nose, the same word kung being employed. This word kung seems rather out of place for cavities and some distinction should have been made. The ciliary processes of the eye are correctly enough yen wen (), but why has the same style of nomenclature not been carried out in the Chinese as in the English? Opposite the two terms ciliary ligament and ciliary muscle, we have simply eye ligament and eye muscle. But the eye has other ligaments and other muscles-we therefore desiderate something distinctive. The word ching () is used instead of yen (R) eye to denote these, as probably standing in some close relation to the lens which is called ching chu(), but this will hardly hold, for the whole eye is called yen ching and the Chinese are entirely ignorant of the lens. The same difficulty precisely is experienced in ciliary artery and ciliary nerves, the word for ciliary in no case being given. Lei kwan kow (*) is given for lachrymal papilla, which denotes rather the orifices of the

lachrymal canals and are called puncta lachrymalia. The papilla is the elevated part, at the summit of which the canals commence. A mouth cannot be at one and the same time a papilla. One would ex

pect to find this term, moreover, under lachrymal apparatus and not under appendages of the eye. In naming the Meibomian glands there is the use of one character wan () which denotes the wrist. The character most probably intended was pau ().

The word lei kuran () is given for lachrymal canal and the ducts leading from the gland to the eye are altogether ignored. I should have preferred to have called these, the kwan, to have kept up the uniformity with the ducts of glands elsewhere and adopted tao or lu for the canals, which carry off the tears from the eye to the lachrymal sac. The nasal duct is called tsung lei kwan (). The term tsung here is not happy; it does not indicate the vessel, the result of the junction of the superior and inferior canal, which enter the sac, and as the vessels from both eyes do not join, it is therefore in no sense tsung general or common. It should have been called the nasal

(lachrymal) duct pi lei kwan (ART).

The auditory canal is called simply (H) ear vessel. The addition of ting() to hear would have made it clearer. Kwan is used in anatomy so generally for blood vessels, that there is apt to be some confusion. The same objection exists to rh moh (H) ear membrane. The addition of tympanum, or drum, or middle ear membrane would have vastly improved it. The cavity of the tympanum is called chung rh fang (†) a term good in itself and easily understood; but possibly the term chiau () already in use would have been preferable. The helix is called rh lien (H). The common expression here is lun () and I observe the Japanese have adopted the same term.

I had intended to have continued this series of articles, criticising further the nomenclature of this Vocabulary, of which there is matter already prepared, but as the subject is not interesting to the general reader and my motives are likely to be misunderstood and misconstrued, I desist at present from further criticism. If necessary it can be renewed at a future time. This article was intended to have formed the sequel to the last, so as to have brought this Review to a speedy close, but it arrived too late and was thus crowded out. In conclusion I ought to say, that I have derived considerable help from this Vocabulary in the formation of one of my own.

IN

THE ORIGIN OF THE LOESS.

Translated from the First Volume of Baron von Richthoven's “China."

BY REV. J. L. EDKINS, D.D.

a country, where so many things are peculiar and striking as in China, there is offered to the observer such a number of different objects, that we might easily regard this circumstance as the cause of the non-existence of notes by travelers upon this subject. The Jesuits of the 17th and 18th centuries had many occasions to see it on their journeys in a state of the fullest development. All the Russian embassies came through regions where they saw loess on the way and Lord Macartney passed through a country of this formation from Peking to Jehol. But with the exception of a few remarks occasionally made, which could be referred to the scenery of the loess-formation itself, no one has ever described it, till Mr. Raphael Pumpelly pushed his successful journey in 1864 to the South borders of Mongolia. He found in that part of the province of Chili which is nearest to Mongolia large basins filled with a peculiar yellow earth with a vertical cleavage, which I was able to identify at a later time with the loess of the whole North of China. In order to explain its origin he (Pumpelly) chose that theory which perhaps everyone thinks first of as the most natural, viz., that there have been once large fresh water lakes, in which the yellow earth was precipitated. In order to explain in what way the material for stratification to the extent of several hundred feet could have been brought into the lakes, he supposed that the Yellow River must have had in former times another course than at present and that it had flowed in a nearly direct line from Ning-hia-fu to Peking through the whole series of the basins. The theory, which was carried through with genius, was greeted by many with enthusiasm, perhaps because in making a great revolution in geography it ascribed an important role to the Yellow River, whose changes have always been a favorite subject for speculation. Subsequent writers on North China have, among all the excellent contents of Pumpelly's copious work, cited nothing so often, and accepted nothing so readily as his theory of the origin of the "terrace deposits," as he calls the loess, and they have left plenty of space to their fancy in enlarging the hypothesis. The missionary, Alexander Williamson, who deserves high praises and whom we have to thank for a number of interesting observations on different parts of China, soon found similar large basins filled with loess in the province of Shansi and applied the same theory to account for these also. The attempt to explain the loess as a lake-deposit

was so much the more favorably accepted as the European, and in particular the loess of the valley of the Rhine, is supposed to originate in the same way. The question here was especially, if it was a mere sedimentary deposit in fresh water or if it was precipitated into the estuary of some large river.

When I first came into the regions of the loess I soon discovered that I had to face a very difficult problem. I found the same kind of earth with unchanged character commencing from the great plain and proceeding higher and higher till it reached several thousand feet above the sea. Everywhere it showed itself with certainty as a formation, which was only formed after the whole country had received its present configuration in its entirety.

The theory of sedimentary deposit in fresh water lakes was herewith shattered. How could such lakes have spread themselves beside the sea and at the same time covered plateaus of 6,000 feet in height and enveloped still higher mountain-crests. With all this there was no trace of stratification and I never succeeded in finding fresh water snails in the loess. A deposit effected under the sea was just as little probable, because then the sea must not very long since have spread over all the mountains of the North of China. One would need to suppose, as Mr. Kingsmill does in opposition to the view which for the first time I explained in 1870, that in recent times the eastern end of our continent sank at least 2,400 meters, and that again a rising just as considerable has taken place; for both of which suppositions there is not offered the least ground. Besides if the loess were submarine in its origin we ought to find sea-animals at least here and there in the stratification, as we do in every instance where the sea has during the latest periods of time encroached so extensively. And further it would be inexplicable how the remains of land-mammals and land snails are found exclusively there. The view which has been taken in reference to the geological history of the valley of the Rhine is that it was by glacier ice that the finely pulverised materials which by deposition have formed the loess strata were carried down from the mountains during the last glacial period till they settled down in their present form. An explanation such as this would not serve for China, firstly for the simple reason, that all traces of a former covering of glaciers extending over North China are wanting, and secondly for the same reasons which exclude the hypothesis of the fresh water deposits whether in lakes or rivers; since in any other way the materials brought down by the glaciers could not have been deposited on high levels.

So then every attempt to explain the deposition of loess as effected with the help of water is vain. We are forced to the accept

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