265 



kind of writing. Dr. Hincks maintains that every vowel 

 is expressed at least once ; but that both vowels and conso- 

 nants might be expressed twice, at the end of one character 

 and at the beginning of the next. 



In addition to the correction made in Westergaard's al- 

 phabet by the addition of vowels to the consonants, which he 

 supposed the complete representations of certain characters, 

 and by the substitution of different vowels for those which he 

 used, entirely new values are given by Dr. Hincks to five cha- 

 racters which Westergaard had improperly valued, and to five 

 more which he had not valued at all. 



Specimens of the inscriptions in this kind of writing, as 

 read and translated, were added. The language was said to 

 agree with the Indo-Germanic languages in having inflections ; 

 but to have inflections completely different from those of all 

 these languages. 



In a postscript to the paper it was stated, that the Babylo- 

 nian and Assyrian alphabets were both of the same nature as 

 this ; so far as that some of the characters represented syl- 

 lables and some elementary sounds ; that the same sound was 

 represented by two or more characters; that no vowel was 

 omitted ; and that vowels and consonants were habitually re- 

 presented twice, when only to be sounded once. The number 

 of elementary sounds in the Babylonian, or third kind of Per- 

 sepolitan writing, was greater than in the second kind, as was 

 the number of characters in use. Both the Babylonian and 

 Assyrian had something in common with the second Persepo- 

 litan language ; but they had also affinities with the Semitic 

 languages. 



Rev. T. R. Robinson made some observations on Dr. 

 Hincks's paper, referring to researches on the same subject 

 by Mr. Norris and Colonel Rawlinson. 



Rev. S. Butcher read the third part of Dr. Hincks's paper 

 on Egyptian hieroglyphics. 



