McCURDY, James Frederick, orientalist, born in Chatham, New Brunswick, 18 February, 1847. He was graduated at the University of New Brunswick in 1866, and in 1871 at Princeton theological seminary, where he was instructor in oriental languages in 1873-'82. After studying in Gottingen and Leipsic in 1882-'4, he lectured on the Stone foundation in Princeton in 1885-'6, and in the latter year became professor of oriental languages in University college, Toronto, Canada. In the Lange-Schaff commentary on the Bible he translated and edited the Psalms, part ii., and the Book of Hosea, and wrote the commentary on Haggai (New York, 1872-'3), and he has published " Aryo-Semitic Speech" (Andover and London, 1881) ; and a paper on " The Semitic Prefect in Assyria" in the "Transactions of the Congress of Orientalists" (Leyden, 1883); and is preparing for publication (1887)his Princeton lectures on "The Assyrian Inscriptions and the Old Testament."