360 PROCEEDINGS OF THE AMERICAN ACADEMY 



the failure of the continuity of error, that the distribution of errors in 

 accordance with the law prescribed by theory must fail unless they are 

 counted within limits which include the limit of sensibility. 



I do not wish to be understood in these remarks as under-estimating 

 the value of such investigations as these on the Pole Star, or the use- 

 fulness of repeated attempts to reach the utmost limits of refinement 

 attainable by computation, nor as depreciating the importance of watch- 

 ful criticism of one another on the part of astronomers. But, as I have 

 said, I was apprehensive that some who are not astronomers, from the 

 circumstances attending the publication of Mr. SafJbrd's paper, might 

 attach to his correction of the place of the Pole Star a practical im- 

 portance which I think Mr. Safford himself would not claim for it, and 

 might needlessly fear that the Nautical Almanac, the Coast Survey, 

 and the National Observatory had suffei'ed injury from the use of an 

 erroneous element. 



Five hundred and fortieth Meeting. 



October 11, 1864. — Monthly Meeting. 



The President in the chair. 



Dr. Pickering made the following communication : — 



" After finding the names of lunar months in 1 Kings vi. 1 to 38, 

 and viii. 2 (Chron. Obs. on Animals and Plants, p. 165), I was led to 

 suspect that one of the measures of Jeroboam to prevent the reunion of 

 the Hebrew people was the introduction of the Lunar calendar. 



" Commencing a calculation by this calendar, I found in the death of 

 the king of Israel and the king of Judah, both by the hand of Jehu, 

 the seeming discrepance of three years in the Bible reduced to B. C. 

 877y. SSTgS^d. — 877y. 317f|^d. = less than forty days. 



" Continuing the calculation until the capture of Jerusalem by Jeho- 

 ash, I found that King Amaziah was permitted to live after this event 

 'fifteen years ' = half the so-called Muslim cycle, ' thirty years of twelve 

 lunations = 10,631 days.' I was further surprised at finding that this 

 half did not leave a fractional day, = 14 Julian years 202 days. A 

 further reduction being even possible, 7^ lunar years or ninety luna- 

 tions = 7 Julian years 101 days. 



" Here then was the means of substituting one calendar for another 

 without interrupting a reckoning in lunations. And in Eastern coun- 



