326 THOMAS YOUNG. 
notice of our readers a few of those passages in that work in 
which Dr. Young’s claims are so powerfully vindicated. ‘The 
conclusions turn on such a variety of points of details that it 
would be wholly impracticable to attempt any analysis of 
them in this place. But the result tends to assign a consid- 
erably larger share of credit in the discovery to Dr. Young 
than Arago seems disposed to allow him. Dr. Peacock’s able 
and elaborate work is doubtless in the hands of all those who 
take any interest in a question so important to the advance of 
philological and ethnological science as well as to general lit- 
erature. Yet a slight sketch of the chief points referred to 
may not be useless. 
We may first mention that Dr. Young’s article “ Egypt” 
in the Supplement to the Encyclopedia Britannica, published 
in 1819, contains the most comprehensive survey of his labours 
and conclusions on the subject of hieroglyphic literature up 
to that date. It does not profess to go into those minutie of 
critical detail, for which reference must be made to his nu- 
merous other writings on the subject. But as a general and 
popular view it will always be consulted with advantage. 
Nevertheless, the reader must always bear in mind that, in 
the statements thus given, much had to be revised, or even 
reversed, from the improved disclosures of his later researches. 
Dr. Peacock has alluded but briefly to the views of Arago, 
and towards the conclusion of the chapter, sums up the repre- 
sentation of the case as given in the éloge, remarking only 
that the whole of his previous statements constitute the refu- 
tation of it. 
The following extract will show the main claims of Young, 
insisted on by his biographer. 
“Tt was Dr. Young who first determined, and by no easy 
process, that the ‘ rings’ * on the Rosetta stone contained the 
name of Ptolemy. It was Dr. Young who determined that 
the semicircle and oval, found at the end of the second ring, 
—* Certain portions of the hieroglyphical characters are found sur- 
rounded by a ring or enclosure called by the French ‘“ Cartouches.”’ 
—— 
