Page:Discovery and Decipherment of the Trilingual Cuneiform Inscriptions.djvu/266

Rh 

BEER AND JACQUET TO RAWLINSON -A.D. 1838-1846 The simultaneous publication of the two essays by Burnouf and Lassen roused considerable interest among those devoted to the obscure problems of cuneiform decipherment. Grotefend, whose attention for the previous twenty years had been chiefly diverted to other pursuits, returned once more to the subject in which he had previously achieved such great success, and in the year following he published 'Neue Beiträge zur Erläuterung der Persepolitanischen Keilschrift.' We have already seen that his mind had by that time lost much of its elasticity, and he displayed more tenacity in defending his old errors than aptitude in recognising the truth of the new discoveries. To some of these, however, he is forced to give a qualified assent. He may indeed claim the merit of having now for the first time fixed the true value of one more character. It may be recollected that the two signs 38 and 40  had been long considered to express the same sound. Grotefend first attributed to both the value of sch; but in consequence of the Murgab inscription he afterwards considered that the last (40) must denote sr. This opinion was not, however, generally accepted. St. Martin preferred ch for both, and Lassen s. Burnouf, however, suggested