394 
ORDINARY MEETING, June 19, 1871 * 
Charles Brooke, Esq., F.R.S., Vice-President, in the 
Chair. 
The Minutes of the last meeting were read and confirmed, and the election 
of the following Members was announced : — 
Members : — Augustus Frederick Bay ford, Esq., LL.D., Senior Registrar 
of the Court of Probate, and Chancellor of the Diocese of Manchester, 
38, Hamilton Terrace, St. John’s Wood ; George Brightwen, Esq., 
8, Finch Lane ; J. W. Harrison, Esq., 156, Hampstead Road. 
Associates, 2nd Class : — Rev. Samuel Arnott, M.A., Vicarage, Turn- 
ham Green ; Rev. J. F. Stevenson, LL.B., King’s Road, Reading, 
Berkshire. 
Also the presentation of the following work : — 
Transactions of the Royal United Service Institution , A T o. 62. From the 
Institution. 
The Honorary Secretary.— Before we commence the discussion of the 
two papers read at our last meeting, I wish to state that, after it took place, I 
communicated with Dr. Birch, of the British Museum, and the Rev. Stanley 
Leathes, Professor of Hebrew at King’s College. The former has written to 
say that he regrets a previous engagement will prevent his being here to- 
night. With respect to one question raised in Dr. Thornton’s paper and 
those now before us he adds — 
“ In regard to the numbers mentioned at the Exodus, no. light upon this 
point is thrown by any recent researches into the Egyptian or Assyrian 
monuments, and I have nothing to advance in the proposed emendations o. 
text or improved interpretations of the passages there cited. 
u The question of how the numbers were written at the time of Moses m ast 
always remain a point for discussion until some contemporary Hebrew 
inscription is found. The Egyptians always wrote by cipher, the Assyrians 
and Babylonians sometimes by cipher, at other times by words, and there is 
no contemporary Phoenician inscription to show how these people calculated 
at the time.” 
Professor Leathes says — 
“ I fear I shall not be able to attend the meeting on Monday. ... - I 
have not made the numbers of the Pentateuch my peculiar study, but I may 
* Bee Note, first part, page 348, 
