1897.] International Congress of Orientalists^ Paris. 141 



tlie important work of tlie Arab historian Ibn-al-Mujawir. The com- 

 munications of MM. Karabacek and Hondas, confirming the Indiar. 

 origin of the Arabic numeral figures, were noteworthy. Mention was 

 also made of recent works undertaken for the study of the mosques 

 and of the basilicas existing in Tunisia. 



In Section lYa. (Semitic), where Prof. Guidi presided, Dr. Ginsburg 

 presented a fragment of a Hebrew MS. of Ecclesiasticus discovered 

 by Mrs. Lewis and her sister. Later on M. Halevy called attention 

 to the great importance of the discovery for the literary history of 

 the Bible. A resolution was passed in furtherance of a critical edition 

 of the Talmud. On the following day another resolution was passed 

 in favour of a meeting in 1899 of Semitic scholars in Palestine. The 

 communications of M. Schwab on the Meghillat Tanit and Dr. Haupt 

 on the Hebrew pluralts majestatis also deserve mention. 



In the small Section IVb. ( Assyriology) the president was Dr. 

 Tiele, with Messrs. Pinches, Hommel, and Haupt as vice-presidents. 

 M. Scheil gave an account of his recent discoveries in the East, and 

 Mr. Pinches spoke of his proposed series of texts from private collec- 

 tions. The thanks of the section were voted to Hamdi Bey, the Turkish 

 director of excavations, for Iiis services to archaeology. 



In Section V. (Egypt and African Languages) M. JSfaville presided. 

 Here the great event was the desciiption (already foreshadowed at the 

 general sitting on Monday) by Dr. Erman of his proposed Thesauras, 

 to be published by the German Government and directed by a com- 

 mittee of the academies of Berlin, Leipzig, Gottingen, and Munich. 

 It is to deal with words from hieroglyphic and hieratic texts, and 

 its full publication will take some sixteen years. M. Sethe's paper on 

 the alleged occarrence of the names of Ousaphais and Mibis on certain 

 early vases excited considerable interest. 



The sections of Grece-Oiient (VI.) and Ethnography (YII.) were 

 presided over by M. Bikelas and Dr. Yarabery respectively." 



6. In connexion with Linguistics, I wish to draw prominent atten- 

 tion to the Laboratory of Experimental Phonetics in the Colleo^e de 

 France. It is open to students of all nationalities. There is a machine 

 there which should certainly be vigorously employed in India. It is the 

 invention of the Abbe Rousselot, and its object is the mechanical 

 registration of all sounds, showing graphically the component parts of 

 each. It may most easily be described as based on the principal of the 

 Phonograph or of the Graphophone which have frequently been exhibit- 

 ed in Calcutta. We know that in these machines, a stylus set in 

 motion by a diaphragm makes certain marks on a revolving cylinder. 

 This is exactly what is done in the Abbe Rousselot's machine, but the 



