in the evolution of the new script. For example, the vertical wedge that crosses the horizontal in the Babylonian is generally placed before them in Median, and the same rule applies to the horizontal crossing the vertical. There is an evident effort to simplify both the writing and the language. The signs preserve the same signification in both, but when it happens in Babylonian that the same sign has many different values (sometimes no less than nine) it has never more than two in Median. So also the number of homophones, or different signs with the same values, are strictly limited. Indeed, he considers that the Median was an early effort to approach an alphabetical system.[677] We have seen that several of the errors made by Oppert in his list of 1859 were corrected from various sources before 1874.[678] He was still left with three wrong values, five only nearly correct and four omitted altogether. Of the first class he now gives one a value that accords with that of Weisbach—11ᵇ, ‘ko’ for ‘kam,’ the ‘gau’ of Norris and Weisbach.[679] Of the second class he corrects four,[680] and he supplies correct values to three of those previously omitted.[681] He now presents us with a list of a hundred and twelve distinct signs, and no less than fifteen ideographs; but when their syllabic values are also known the majority are included in the hundred and twelve signs. Four, however, appear among the ideographs for the first time, and raise the total number of signs to a hundred and sixteen. Six of these are,[682] however, repeated twice over to express different syllabic values, thus reducing the number of distinct signs to a hundred and ten. He accepts a hundred and five of the hundred and six signs that were already known, rejecting only one (No. 21). He completes his number by the addition of five other signs,[683] of which Weisbach has accepted three. With these two exceptions, the whole of Oppert’s signs are to be found in Weisbach: that is, a hundred and eight out of the hundred and ten. Weisbach, however, includes in his list the No. 21 of Hincks, omitted by Oppert. The two writers are also substantially agreed as to the values of the signs. Of the hundred and six given in Menant’s list, we find they differ only as to seven. Of these, two are omitted by Oppert[684] and one by Weisbach.[685] In four cases only have they arrived at absolutely contradictory values.[686] The discovery announced in 1859 of a determinative sign to indicate that the one preceding it should be read ideographically led to the identification of a number of signs to which ideographic values may be attached, and their number is raised from the seven known in 1859 to sixteen. The ones now added by Oppert are ‘town,’ ‘mountain,’ ‘race,’ ‘arch’ (a window), ‘sea,’ ‘house,’ ‘head,’ ‘ship,’ ‘camel’; and Weisbach has since contributed a fifth determinative which, he says, is placed before articles of wood.[687]