BIRCH, SAMUEL 0813-1885), English Egyptologist and antiquary. At first employed in the Record Office, he was ap pointed to the British Museum staff in 1836, as he knew Chinese. He then began to study Egyptian and Assyrian, and on the reorganization of the museum he was in charge of the department of that name. He wrote a grammar of Egyptian hieroglyphs and compiled a dictionary, as well as making a translation of the Book of the Dead. He wrote a standard history of pottery and many philological papers.