PROCEEDINGS 
OF 
THE ROYAL IRISH ACADEMY. 
1837, No. 7. 
November 13. 
Rev. B. LLOYD, D. D., Provost, T. C. D., President, 
in the Chair. 
Rosert Suaw, Esq., Bushy Park, was elected an ordinary, 
and Captain W. H. Smith, an honorary member of the 
Academy. 
Rev. Dr. Wall, Senior Fellow of Trinity College, read a 
paper on the “ Original State of the Text of the Hebrew 
Bible, and on the Nature, Age, and Origin of the Sanscrit 
Writing and Language ;” but he only touched upon the 
first subject as far as was necessary for the introduction of 
the second. 
All the letters of the Hebrew text, in its original state, 
were employed as signs of syllables, beginning with conso- 
nants, and ending with vowels. The vowel part of every 
syllable being variable, it was left to the judgment of the 
reader to determine, for each place of the occurrence of a 
letter, the vowel which his knowledge of the language 
showed him was required by the context. Even still, near 
four-fifths of the vowels must, in reading the présent un- 
pointed text, be supplied in a similar manner; the only dif- 
ference being, that they are no longer considered to be 
included in what the letters express, the powers of those 
K 
