A general meeting of the above Societ was held on the 14th instant, Mr. 'T. W. Kingsmill, President, in the chair. There was about the usual attendance of members. After the minutes of the last meeting had been read and confirmed, the following gentlemen, having been recommended by the Council, were elected members, Dr. L.
Little and Mr. G. E. Wellesley, resident; and Mr. A. Hosie, of Peking, non-resident.
The Prestenr then read a paper, written by Mr. E. H, Parker, on "The comparative study of Chinese Dialects," which was very interesting, and at the close elicited some tinent remarks from the Rev. E. R.
and Dr. Macgowan.
ent, was by Mr. A. Hosie, the subject 'A second paper, also read by the Presid-
being "Sun-spots and Sun-shadows observed in China, B.C. 28—A.D. 1617." After the reading, the President gave the followi interesting explanation in connection wi the essay
proved that solar-spots followed an ap-Although it could not be considered as proximate eleven years' cycle, thoro were Many astronomers of high standing who supported that theory. Ho had himeelf been so much struck by the contents of Mr. Hosie's paper, that he had made the trial of placing the observations in an eleven years' cycle, and was pleased to note that there was an apparent coincidence. He had taken two centuries, and after working out cycle for each independently, had found that the two would fit in with auch a cycle. Moreover, on extending the table to the present century, he found that similar intervals would bring the cycle up to the year 1871, which was marked by an excess of solar macule, Having done so much, he had looked back to Mr. Hosie's former paper on droughts and famines. The experience of the last ten or twelve years in China had seemed to show that droughts in North China were generally coincident in time with excessive floods in the central provinces, and that it was.an usual occurrence for the valley of the Yangtaze to be flooded while not a drop of rain fell in Chibli and, Shansi. So also he had noted that yours of excessive rainfall in, bibi.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.