Unlike some other reproductions of classic texts (1) We have not used OCR(Optical Character Recognition), as this leads to bad quality books with introduced typos. (2) In books where there are images such as portraits, maps, sketches etc We have endeavoured to keep the quality of these images, so they represent accurately the original artefact. Although occasionally there may be certain imperfections with these old texts, we feel they deserve to be made available for future generations to enjoy.

Unlike some other reproductions of classic texts (1) We have not used OCR(Optical Character Recognition), as this leads to bad quality books with introduced typos. (2) In books where there are images such as portraits, maps, sketches etc We have endeavoured to keep the quality of these images, so they represent accurately the original artefact. Although occasionally there may be certain imperfections with these old texts, we feel they deserve to be made available for future generations to enjoy.

Thomas Young (1773-1829) was an English physician who was one of the first modern scholars to attempt to decipher ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs, and made significant contributions to a variety of other academic disciplines. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1794 and in 1803 published an article establishing the wave theory of light. Young became interested in hieroglyphs in 1814, when he was sent a fragment of papyrus from Egypt. After acquiring a copy of the Rosetta Stone inscriptions Young made rapid progress, publishing his results in 1816 and 1819. When Champollion published his groundbreaking work on hieroglyphs in 1822 Young believed that Champollion had based that work on his earlier translations without acknowledgement, which Champollion denied. This book was published in 1823 in an attempt by Young to lay 'public claim to whatever credit be my due', and provides a summary of his hieroglyphic research.