180 Foreign, Liierature and Science. 



18, Ellious Boelkor^ professor of Arabic in the King's 

 Library. He died of a disease of the hver after two weeks 

 illness, on the 26th of September- He was born at Syout, 

 in Upper Egypt, and was interpreter to the French army. 

 He was scarcely 40 years of age. He had acquired by la- 

 bour and study, great perfection in the language and liter- 

 ature of France. He expressed himself with facility and 

 clearness in French and in Arabic, and though it was easy 

 to recognise in his delivery a foreign pronunciation, it was 

 not so with respect to the propriety of his terms and even 

 the elegance of his diction. 



The loss of this man is to be regretted not only on ac- 

 count of oriental literature, and pubUc instruction : it is 

 still more sad in reference to the civilization of Egypt. 

 He formed a natural tie between France and his native 

 country. Familiar with the grammarians, the literati, the 

 philosophers, and all the principal writers of France, he 

 would have been able, above every other per^son, to initiate 

 pupils chosen among his own countrymen in our arts and 

 sciences. 



Ellious Boethor first became known at Paris, a few 

 years since, by his decyphering and translating with the 

 greatest facility, the numerous pieces in Arabic preserved 

 in the war department. He brought with him a large dic- 

 tionary m the two languages, the fruit of ten years labour 

 and meditation in which each of the acceptations of the 

 Arabic words is justified by examples taken from good au- 

 thors. This manuscript is in the hands of his widow, and 

 constitutes her whole dependence. We doubt not that the 

 government wmII obtain it and print it for the benefit of stu- 

 dents, and especially of the pupils in the oriental schools 

 of Paris and Marseilles. We beheve the author had also 

 composed an Arabic and French Grammar, He has left a 

 blank very difficult to fill, for it requires conditions which 

 it is almost impossible to conciliate. 



^11 IS almost impo 



Jomard. Rev. Ency~ 



19. Botany. — They are now cultivating in Sweden the 

 astragalus balticus (Linneus) as an excellent substitute for 

 coffee, and the decoction of which requires only the fifth 



^ir commonly used. This plant produces 

 sis hundred or a thousand fold, and does not suffer from 

 intense frost. Dr. Bayrhammor of Wurtzburg^ offers to 



fr 



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