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 OECHARDSON.

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to Mesopotamia, and investigated the ruins of Babylon and ChaldsBa. Betuming to France in 1854, he was sent, in the following year, on a mission to the British Museum, and he attended the meeting of the British Association at Glasgow. In 1857 he was appointed Professor of Sanscrit and Comparative Philology at the Imperial Library, Paris; and in 1868, Professor of Assyrian Philology and Arch»ology in the College de France. In 1881 he was admitted a member of the Insti- tute of France, not, however, with- out some objections having been raised on account of his German birth, although he had received letters of grand naturalization in 1856. Professor Oppert has pub- lished numerous works. One of the earliest was a treatise on the Old Persian g^phic system {** Laut- system des Altpersischen," 1847). This was followed by " The Inscrip- tions of the Achemenides," 1852; "Assyrian Studies," and "The French Scientific Expedition to Mesopotamia,'' 1858. In 1863 he obtained the grand biennial prize (20,000 fr.), of the Institute of France, then awarded, for the se- cond time, to "the work or the discovery most calculated to do honour or service to the country." He announced at the Congress of Orientalists held in London in 1874, his discovery of the ancient chrono- logy of Babylon. Among Dr. Op- pert*8 subsequent Works which give him a place in the front rank of Orientalists may be mentioned " The Cuneiform Inscriptions again deciphered," 1859 j " Sanscrit Gram- mar," 1859, 2nd edit. 1863 ; " Ele- ments of Assyrian Grammar," 1860 ; " Present State of the Deciphering of the Cuneiform Inscriptions; " The Fasti of Sargon ; " History of the Empires of Chaldsea and As- syria," 1866 ; " Babylon and the Babylonians," 1869 ; " Biblical Chronology," 1870; "Persian Mis- cellanies,'^ 1872; "Solomon and his Successors," 1877; and "The

People and Language of the Medes," 1879.

OECHARDSON, William Quil- LBR, R.A., born at Edinburgh in 1835, entered at the age of fifteen the Trustees' Academy of his native city. The first pictures he sub- mitted to public inspection were shown in the exhibitions of the Eoyal Scottish Academy. Encouraged by their reception, Mr. Orchardson came to London in 1863, and the same year exhibited in Trafalgar- square for the first time. His con- tributions were entitled "An Old English Song," and "Portraits," the latter a life-size full-length por- trait composition of three young ladies. In the following year he exhibited at the British Institution a figure of "Peggy" from Allan Bamsay's " Gentle Shepherd," and at the Boyal Academy another Scottish subject, entitled " Flowers o' the Forest." The following year appeared at the Royal Ac^emy " Hamlet and Ophelia," and in the winter exhibition at the French gallery, PallMaU, "The Challenge," which won a prize of jglOO given by Mr. Wallis. In 1866 came "The Story of a Life " at the Academy — an aged nun relating her life expe- rience to a group of novices ; and " Christopher Sly," in Mr. Wallis's winter exhibition at the Suffolk- street galleries. In 1867 the Aca- demy pictures were " Talbot and the Countess of Auvergne," and "Miss Pettie," and another was shown at the French gallery winter exhibi- tion, entitled " Choosing a Weapon." In Jan., 1868, he was elected an Associate of the Boyal Academy, only four years after he had come to London. He exhibited that year at the Academy, besides a portrait of Mrs. Birket Foster, a subject from Shakspeare — " Prince Henry, Poins, and Falstaff." In 1870 three pic- tures by him were exhibited at the Eoyal Academy, viz., "Day Dreams," "ITie Market-Girl from the Lido," and " Toilers of the Sea." Mr. Orchardson achieved a great