The size of the signet is two inches long by one inch wide. At the back is a ring. If used for printing, its application was no doubt the same as that of the blocks used by the _Paper Stainers_ of the present day. Coloured pigments would be applied to the face of the letters, and the signet would then be stamped on whatever substance was to be marked. It might, in this way, have been used for stamping on the covers of letters or parcels, to mark the name of the party from whom they were sent, in the same way as engraved fac-simile signatures are officially used for franking such documents through the post at the present day. It may, however, have been the receipt stamp of a man in trade; or a trade-mark, used, for instance, to stamp the wares while in a semi-plastic state, of a baker or brick-maker. After the above was in type, the writer was informed by Dr. J. D. M. Coghill, Superintendent of the Convict Establishment at Wẹlikaḍa, near Colombo, that the probability of the first of the purposes to which the signet is supposed to have been applied, was much strengthened by the somewhat similar practice, though not for an exactly similar object, which prevails in parts of China, in the use of _chops_,--“house-signs,”--by professional men, traders, &c. These chops are small blocks of box or other hard wood, on the upper surfaces of which the name and profession of an individual or firm are cut by itinerant engravers, at the rate of thirty for a Mexican dollar. To meet the requirements of business and to facilitate intercourse between Europeans and native Chinese, each foreign house, or firm, or professional man, furnishes all those with whom he or they have transactions, with his ‘chop,’ on the sides of which his name and address are also written in Roman characters. Whatever letter, document, packet or parcel is thenceforth sent to him or them, besides the address written with ordinary ink and in Roman characters, a red ink impression of the chop is stamped on the envelope or cover. This any native can read, and the addressee is without difficulty found. To this information Dr. Coghill kindly added the gift of the accompanying original chop, which belonged to his brother, Dr. Sinclair Coghill, when practising as a physician with his partner, Dr. Bell, in Shanghai. The characters represent the words ‘Peh-i-sang,’ the nearest equivalent the Shanghai dialect of the Chinese language gives to ‘Bell, Physician.’ It is a small block, an inch and a quarter long, three-eighths of an inch broad, and was one inch and three-eighths high. It has, however, been reduced to an inch in height to suit the size of the type and allow of its being herewith printed. [Illustration: 栢醫生]