It is, I presume, a truth pretty well established, that all such cutaneous affections as are not ushered in by particular febrile symptoms, are more common and more inveterate in hot than in temperate climates: but, with the exception of Doctors Hillary and Towne, I am not aware that any author on tropical diseases has bestowed much attention on maladies of this description, though some of them are singular in their character, and most of them very untractable.

The graphic beauty of a written language, which approaches so near to the hieroglyphic as the Chinese, where many of the characters are intended as pictures of the idea to be conveyed, where the variety of the lines, or strokes, is so great, and their combinations are so numerous, must be allowed at once to exceed, and to be more difficult of attainment than, that of the alphabetic writing of Europe. The number of the simple characters, or elements, of which all the compounds of the language are formed, greatly exceeds that of any one alphabet; but, when compounded, their relative juxta-position and arrangement, the shortening of some strokes and the lengthening of others, is of course subject to some general rules; which, from the very nature of the subject, must be more numerous and complicated, than the mere joining together of our European letters. The advantage of simplicity (and a very great advantage it is) constitutes the chief merit of alphabetic writing; that of variety and graphic beauty may fairly be claimed by the Chinese.

I Have the honour to present to the Society fac-simile engravings of two medals, which fill up a chasm in the Numismatic series of the Greek Kings of Bactria, viz. Apollodotus and Menander.

Capt. A. Gerard, from whose letters on a survey of the middle valley of the Setlej, in the year 1818, a brief sketch of the geology of that part of the Himálaya was prepared, which has been inserted in the Geological Transactions (1st vol., New Series), has since continued to explore the same interesting portion of the great Indian chain of mountains. A short narrative of a visit to the same quarter, in 1820, was communicated to the Royal Society of Edinburgh, and is published in the 10th volume of the Edinburgh Philosophical Journal, (page 295.) In the subsequent, year (1821) Capt. A. Gerard, with his brother, Mr. J. G. Gerard, more fully explored the same valley, to complete a geographical survey of it. Their diary, and the geological specimens collected by them, have, at their request, been freely communicated to me by the East-India Company, with the liberal permission of retaining a duplicate set of the specimens. This I accordingly have had the satisfaction of presenting to the Geological Society. But, as the diary contains particulars unconnected with geology, yet not devoid of interest in a more general view, I now offer to the notice of the Royal Asiatic Society a summary of it, interspersed with remarks, and including extracts of the more important passages.

The Censor, Wang-shĭ-fŎ, has presented to us a paper, concerning the malversations in office prevalent among the clerks and official assistants in the government offices of Chĭh-le province.

From what I can collect regarding the Sráwacs, or laity of the Jains, they appear to be the only considerable remnant in India of the earlier Jains, or Arhatas. They follow principally the trade of Banyas, dealing in grain; and as Sráwac Banyas, necessarily adhere to the Jain laws: but as their particular calling seems to have required rules for their guidance, much of the twelve vratas refers to their commercial transactions, as connected with moral duties. I do not think these vratas formed a part of the older Jain institutes at all; nor could such a code be brought to apply to any except the subordinate tribes, it being quite unsuitable to any purpose of government.

Of the six systems of philosophy received among learned Hindus, four have been noticed in the preceding parts of this essay, viz. the theistical and atheistical Sánc'hyas, the dialectic Nyáya, and the atomical Vaiśéshica. The prior or practical Mímánsá will be now considered; reserving the later or theological Mímánsá, usually named Védánta, for a future disquisition, should it appear requisite to pursue the subject, much concerning it being already before the public.

The degree of civilization attained by a nation may, in a great measure, be estimated by the progress which it has made in those useful arts, trades, and employments, by means of which the necessaries, conveniencies, and luxuries of life are formed, collected, and distributed. In order to judge of the degree of this advancement, perhaps no better criterion need be sought than observing the divisions and subdivisions found to exist in its trades, manufactures, and other callings. By comparing these with the state of manufactures, trade, and commerce of other nations, a tolerably correct notion may be formed of the point which such people has actually attained in the scale of social refinement.

In accordance with a desire of the Lieutenant-Governor, Sir Stamford Raffles, and in pursuance of the objects of the mission to the Bataks, we left the village of Sibolga on Friday the 30th of April 1824, for the purpose of visiting the populous districts inland of the bay of Tappanooly. The general opinion of the ferocity of the Batak character, together with the representations of various individuals residing in the bay, had led us to view the enterprize as somewhat hazardous and difficult. The previously limited intercourse of Europeans with the interior, had reduced them to the necessity of depending upon the natives of the coast and the adjacent mountains for their information relative to those parts: these, from a habit of hereditary depredation on their more inland neighbours, having imbibed towards them sentiments and feelings to their prejudice, had generally presented the most unfavourable view of their character and disposition.

My attention was recently drawn to the arguments of English divines, in answer to certain physiological publications tending to materialism, in consequence of the similarity, if not the identity of some of their reasonings, with those which I recollected to have seen in a Persian work, written by a Mohammedan in the thirteenth century. I accordingly sought for the passages, and the following translated extract from the “ Akhlâk è Nàseri” is the result of the search. This striking similarity of reasoning is probably to be attributed to the actual derivation of each from one common source— the works of the Greek philosophers, with which the Persian author evinces an intimate acquaintance.

As connected with the subject of an essay on the Sráwacs or Jainas, read at a former meeting, I lay before the Society copies of inscriptions found by Dr. Buchanan Hamilton in South Bihar. Though not ancient, they may be considered to be of some importance, as confirming the prevalence of a Jaina tradition relative to the site of the spot where the last of the Jinas terminated his earthly existence, and as identifying the first of his disciples with Gautama, whose death and apotheosis took place, according to current belief, in the same neighbourhood.

The sect of Jain has in the division of Nawádá in South Bihar two places of pilgrimage. One is a tank named Nakhaur, about a mile and a half north from Nawádá, and which is of no great size, extending in its greatest length from east to west. It is choked with weeds, especially the nelumbium. The temple is on a small square island covered with a terrace of brick, and is a neat but inconsiderable building, covered with one dome. A very bad road with a rude bridge leads into the island. The temple contains two stones, on each of which is an inscription, and the representation of two human feet, the most usual object of worship among the Jainas of this district. The inscriptions are exactly the same: only the one is a year earlier than the other: I give therefore a copy only of the earliest, dated in Samvat 1676 (A.D. 1619). The object of worship is Gautama, whom the Jainas, as well as the orthodox and Bauddhas, claim as, of their sect; and the image was made by a certain Níháló, mother of Thákur Sangráma, son of Góvardhana dás, son of Góvardhana dás, son of Bimala dás, of the Chóprá tribe, descended of Mantrídal, all persons equally obscure.

At the foot of Párśwanát'hás mountain (Samét Sikhar), on the Ramghur frontier, and one hundred and thirty-six miles south of Bhágalpur, are situated the temples dedicated to Párśwanát'há Iswara (the twenty-third deified saint of the Jains), and constituting one of the principal places of the Jain worship in Hindust'han. They consist of large square brick buildings painted white, with a dome in the centre, and four smaller domes at the four corners. The centre dome is crowned with a gilded spire, like the Piathas of the Buddhaic temples of Ava, as described by Colonel Symes.

In the districts of Bihár and Patna the Jains are called Sráwacs. The number of this sect settled there is not great, amounting only to three hundred and fifty families; but they possess considerable wealth, having all engaged in trade, and many of them with success. They have, therefore, seventeen priests (yatís); fifteen of whom constantly reside at Patna, and two at Bihár. With the two latter I had several interviews, and they were abundantly communicative, the chief of them being a man of considerable learning. At Patna they declined all intercourse with me; which, I am told, proceeded from their being very shallow, and afraid of exposing their ignorance. A Saryuriya-Bráhman, of the sect of Vishnu, named Góvinda, was brought to me at Patna, as the only person there able and willing to give me information relative to the Sráwacs. He said that he had been employed to instruct some of the Yatis in the Sanscrit language, which gave him an opportunity of reading their books and knowing their customs. Finding the employment profitable, he was, I believe, a principal means of keeping the Yatis at a distance from me: he was, however, abundantly diligent in procuring information. In travelling through the district I had also an opportunity of conversing with a great many pilgrims, who had come from Bundelkhund, and were visiting the holy places at Gaya, &c. From these sources I collected some information respecting this sect, which I now offer, in addition to that which I have given in my account of Mysore.

The present dynasty instituted the office of Hoppo (invested with the general superintendence of maritime commerce), on account of its compassionating feelings towards distant foreigners; surely not in consequence of any necessity that it has for the foreigners' clocks and watches, broadcloth, long-ells, &c, or for the sake of the annual duties, amounting to some hundred thousand tales. The Central Nation possesses silk and cotton manufactures of various kinds, enough to clothe all its people j and abundance of dials, clepsydras and hour-glasses, as well as clocks and watches from Soo-chow and Yang-chow, sufficient to ascertain the lapse of time. With regard to the rare articles which are brought from the Four Seas, and by the nations of the north and south, these are piled up in the Imperial Palace in mountainous heaps. When any of the provinces are afflicted with famine, millions of tales are issued from the national treasury for their relief: what necessity, then, can there be for the trifling commodities of foreign nations? In consequence of the various people of the western ocean having long been dependent upon the tea, rhubarb, and other goods of China, for their existence, therefore the office of Hoppo was established, to superintend the trade on just and impartial principles: but as it was to be apprehended that the foreigners coming from afar over a tempestuous ocean, ignorant of the language, and unable to procure food for themselves, would be deceived and cheated by wicked natives, the Hong merchants were instituted to buy their goods, and the Linguists to be their interpreters; while pilots and conpradores were provided them, as well as food and water to support their existence.

In the present essay, it is my intention to treat of the heretical systems of Jina and Buddha, as proposed in the first essay of this series on the philosophy of the Hindus; and to notice certain other Indian sects, which, like them, exhibit some analogy to the Sánc'hyas, or followers of Capila or of Patanjali.