of these characters was recently sent to a number of Oriental scholars, and professional judgment was asked with regard to their genuineness. In answer to such request Chas. H. S. Davis, M. D. Ph. D., of Meriden, Conn., author of "Ancient Egypt in the light of Recent Discoveries," and a member of the American Oriental Society, American Philological Society, Society of Biblical Archaeology of London, Royal Archaeological Institute of Great Britian and Ireland, etc., Said: "I am familiar with Egyptian, Chaldaic, Assyrian and Arabic, and have considerable acquaintance with all of the Oriental languages, and I can positively assert that there is not a letter to be found in the fac-simile submitted that can be found in the alphabet of any Oriental language, particularly those you refer to—namely, Egyptian, Chaldaic, Assyrian and Arabic. A careful study of the fac-simile shows that they are characters put down at random by an ignorant person—with no resemblance to anything, not even shorthand."
President James B. Angell, of the University of Michigan, at Ann Arbor, said, "I have submitted your letter and enclosure to our Professor of Oriental languages, who is more familiar with the subject raised by your questions than I am. He is a man of large learning in Semitic languages and archaeology. The substance of what he has to say is: The document which you enclose raises a moral rather than a linguistic problem. A few letters or signs are noticeable which correspond more or less closely to the Aramaic, sometimes called Chaldee language; for example, s, h, g, t, l, b, n. There are no Assyrian characters in it; and the impression made is that the document is fraudulent."
Dr. Charles E. Moldenke, of New York, of whom Dr. Davis says, "He is probably the best Egyptian scholar in the country," writing from Jerusalem said: "I believe the plates of the Book of Mormon to be a fraud. In the first place it is impossible to find in any old inscription, Egyptian, Arabic, Chaldee and Assyrian characters mixed together. The simple idea of finding
