291 
«s J’ai Vhonneur de vous renouveler l’assurance de mon 
respect, 
“ Jacos Grimm. 
“@ Messieurs les Membres of the Royal 
Irish Academy a& Dublin.” 
The Secretary stated that the letter alluded to by Dr. Jacob 
Grimm, as having been addressed to the Academy some years 
ago, had never (so far as he knew) been received. The letter 
just read reached the Academy soon after the last meeting of 
the late Session, and did not come to his hands until he found 
it among the papers laid aside for the consideration of the 
Council, on their re-assembling in November last. He had 
since made every inquiry for the missing letter, but could find 
no evidence that it had ever been received. 
With respect to the main subject of Dr. Grimm’s letter, 
the Secretary stated, that he hoped on some future occasion 
to lay before the Academy a more complete examination of 
the question than he was now prepared todo. He would only 
say at present, that he could not go so far as Zeuss had done, 
in pronouncing positively that the formule of Marcellus were 
not Celtic; but he thought it almost equally difficult to assert 
that they were so, because the division of them into words was 
necessarily arbitrary, and he could conceive that ingenious 
theorists might readily so divide them as to support almost any 
hypothesis as to the family of language to which they belong. 
It must be admitted, however, that the question is a 
very interesting one, and the thanks of the Academy are due 
to Dr. Grimm for bringing the subject under the notice of 
Celtic scholars. It is deeply to be regretted that the apparent 
neglect of his former communication should have tended to 
discourage so eminent a scholar in a philological inquiry of 
such interest. It is to be hoped that when he receives the 
explanation of our silence, he will be encouraged to pursue his 
investigations with renewed energy. 
