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It is interesting to note that foreign scholars were interested in this discovery in the very beginning. Lin T'ai-fu, the Japanese scholar, already referred to above was one of the pioneer in studying these ancient scripts. Chalfant wrote about them as early as 1906; Hopkins in England and Chavanne^[[es]] in France have all taken a profound interest in this development. The Canadian Missionary, Mr. J. M. Menzies had taken full advantage of his Christian Mission at Chang-te and accumulated a collection of considerable size. But unfortunately, up to the present time, the fate of his collection is quite unknown to us.
In the main the development of this new branch of Chinese classical study is the work of the Chinese scholars. There are at least half a dozen of them who deserve to be placed on the honor roll; and within the limited scope they have worked, they have done it whole heartedly. Althou it is regrettable that scientific excavation did not begin earlier; that seems to be the fault of no particular individual.