In the autumn of 1846, when Rawlinson’s ‘Memoir’ was passing through the press, Dr. Frederick Hitzig published a tract on the Persian Text of the Tomb Inscription of Darius; but his translation shows little advance beyond the point reached by Lassen.[596] The edition of the Persian inscriptions by Theodore Benfey made its appearance early in 1847. His transliteration suffers from having been made before the method of writing explained by Hincks and Rawlinson in the previous year had become generally known. We have already sufficiently noticed Benfey’s translations, which show considerable improvement on those of Lassen, but fall far short of the comparative excellence obtained by Rawlinson. In the course of the summer, another writer appeared whose name has been already mentioned and who was destined to occupy a very important place in the future history of Cuneiform Research. M. Oppert was born in Hamburg in 1825, and studied successively at Heidelberg, Bonn and Berlin. At Bonn he was a pupil of Lassen, and to this circumstance probably we owe his early interest in cuneiform and the publication of a tract on the subject at the age of twenty-two. The promising youth was precluded by his Jewish faith from holding a professorship in Germany, and consequently he went to Paris in 1847. His later writings have all appeared in the French language, and for this reason he is generally included among the number of French scholars, of whom, till quite recent years, he was by far the ablest representative.[597] So far as we are aware, the pamphlet on the ‘Lautsystem des Altpersischen’ was his first effort in this department of knowledge.[598] In it he explains the principle that regulates the employment of the consonants in substantially the same manner as Hincks and Rawlinson had done in the previous year. He had evidently arrived at his conclusion independently, and it is remarkable that he was not better informed of the progress that had recently been made. It might be supposed that the attention of everyone interested in the subject would be directed to the appearance of Rawlinson’s ‘Memoir,’ which was then eagerly expected. It was in fact published before May 1847, and Oppert’s tract was not sent to press till July.