HOFFMANN, JOHANN JOSEPH German scholar, was born at Wiirzburg on Feb. 16, 1805. From the travel ler, P. F. von Siebold (1796-1866) he acquired the rudiments of Japanese. He then learned Chinese, and became Japanese trans lator to the Dutch Colonial Ministry. Eventually he received a chair of Oriental languages at Leyden. He died at The Hague on Jan. 23, 1878. Hoffmann's chief work was his unfinished Japanese dictionary, begun in 1839 and afterwards continued by L. Serrurier. Unable at first to procure the necessary type, he set himself to the cutting of punches, and even when the proper founts were obtained he had to act as his own compositor as far as Chinese and Japanese were concerned. His Japanese grammar (Japanische Sprechlehre) was published in Dutch and English in 1867, and in English and German in 1876.