antiquities, which remained under his care until his death in 1885.
One of Birch's most important achievements in his unofficial life was the founding of the Society of Biblical Archæology, which was resolved upon at a private conference held in the rooms of William Simpson [q. v. Suppl.], the artist, in Lincoln's Inn Fields, on 18 Nov. 1870. On 9 Dec. a public meeting was held in the rooms of the Royal Society of Literature, and the Society of Biblical Archæology came into being. During Birch's lifetime, and under the influence of his great name and learning, this society did splendid work in the cause of egyptology and assyriology, and the study of Semitic epigraphy in general was greatly advanced. In connection with this society gratuitous lectures were given by Birch and other scholars from 1871 to 1875, and elementary works for the use of students were published on his initiative. Birch stood almost alone in attempting to provide at once both for the beginner and for the advanced student of egyptology. He edited the most difficult texts, and submitted them to French and German experts, by whom they were highly prized. But it must never be forgotten that the first elementary grammar of Egyptian, the first hieroglyphic dictionary, the first treatise on Egyptian archæology, the first popular history of Egypt, and the first set of popular translations from the Egyptian into English, were written by him. It was he who first discovered the true use of the phonetic complement in Egyptian words, and it was he who, before 1840, identified the principles on which depended the use of hieroglyphic characters as ideographs and determinatives. His skill in finding out the meaning of a text was remarkable, and any one who compares the results of his labours with those of recent investigators will be surprised at the substantial correctness of his work. He was at times a little negligent of the literary form of his translations, but this was primarily due to his anxiety to place before his readers the exact meaning of the text. His wide reading in the Greek and Roman classics enabled him to illustrate the history and religion of Eygpt; and, on the other hand, his knowledge of the Egyptian inscriptions supplied him frequently with clues to the meaning of obscure references in the classics. The Marquis Tseng, the Chinese ambassador in London, frequently consulted Birch about passages in the old Chinese classics.
Birch's attainments were varied. His duties as assistant, assistant keeper, and keeper in the British Museum made it necessary for him to study the different classes of antiquities in the department to which he was attached, and in the course of his life he wrote papers on British and Roman coins, Greek vases and inscriptions, Chinese seals, Celtic antiquities, Cypriote inscriptions, the Moabite stone, and other topics, with equal skill and facility. Though George Smith (1840-1876) [q.v.] discovered that the Cypriote language was Greek, it was Birch who first read the inscriptions written in it. His merits as an archæologist were even greater than those as an egyptologist. His power to detect imitations and 'forgeries' of ancient objects seemed at times to border on the supernatural. It is to this ability that the immunity of the Egyptian collections in the British Museum from 'forgeries' is due, though it must be admitted that in his later years the national collection lost some precious objects owing to his excessive caution and scepticism. On one occasion Birch was able to prove that two large metal jars, which were declared to be some 1,200 years old by their owner, were modern work, and that the texts upon them were extracts from books that had been written at a comparatively late date; the would-be vendor afterwards admitted that they were 'new.' The little glazed, painted faience bottles which were sometimes found in Egyptian tombs were commonly declared to date from ancient Egyptian times before Birch read the inscriptions upon them, and identified their authors, who had lived several hundreds of years after Christ. Subsequently Sir Augustus Franks proved from Chinese sources that these little bottles were not older than the thirteenth century of our era.
Birch was a man of enormous energy. In his leisure hours he studied mathematics, the theory of fortification, politics, and social questions; in 1854 he produced a play entitled 'Imperial Rome,' the scene of which was laid in the reign of Nero, and a little later he attempted original English verse.
Birch died at his house, 64 Caversham Road, Camden Town, on 27 Dec. 1885, aged 72 years; he was buried in Highgate cemetery. He was married and left issue: Mr. Walter de Gray Birch is his son. A bas-relief profile medallion of Birch was made by Mr. W. Smith in 1846, and a photograph from it appears in Mr. W. de Gray Birch's biographical notices of his father.
Birch had many honours bestowed upon him. He became corresponding member of the Archaeological Institute at Rome in 1839, of the Academy of Berlin in 1851, of the Academy of Herculaneum in 1852, of the French Institute in 1861; the degree of LL.D. was conferred upon him by the uni-
