106 Transactions. — Miscellaneous. 



monuments embodying no mathematical science.* In the 

 Pyramid we find most unmistakably the inch and the cubit 

 of 26 inches ; all the measures of weight and capacity are 

 based upon the inch, and the central chamber where they are 

 deposited is perhaps the most perfect contrivance for securing 

 uniformity of temperature ever devised by the skill of man. 

 In the Pyramid standard measure of capacity, equalling four 

 British '• quarters," we find the origin of the term, the larger 

 measure having been so long disused that the fractional 

 name has been somewhat of a puzzle. f A further example 

 of the little change which a traditional standard may sustain 

 when carefully preserved is found in the fact that our inch 

 differs from its prototype in the Pyramid by only the thou- 

 sandth part (miniis). 



If the basis of our measure be the noblest of all — man 

 himself, so its popular divisions are in practice more adapted 

 to his daily needs than the new ones. Only last year a 

 photographic journal complained that the French system 

 provided no convenient-sized storage-bottles, and said that 

 photographers who, perforce, did laboratory work on the metric 



• So many strange and fanciful theories have been associated with 

 this structure — specially built to embody the astronomical and mathe- 

 matical science of its founders, and to afford an enduring record of their 

 standard of weights and measures — that it is almost necessary in referring 

 to the subject to disclaim the reli£;ious theories which — unfortunately, I 

 think — have been associated with it. Such, for example, as that its 

 builders were divinely inspired, and that it is "a prophecy in stone." 

 To the late Professor Piazzi Smyth, Astronomer Eoyal of Scotland, 

 belongs the credit of making the first exact measurements and of inter- 

 preting the mathematical and astronomical significance of the venerable 

 monument ; but I cannot but think the usefulness of his work was marred, 

 though its accuracy was not affected, by his theological bias. He disliked 

 the division of the circle into 360 degrees not on scientific grounds, but 

 because that method was used by the idolatrous Babylonians. He 

 accepted as fact the Rabbinical tradition recorded by Josephus, that 

 Cain added to his iniquities by devising weights and measures that he 

 might defraud those with whom he had dealings — a story in much the 

 same category as that in the apocryphal Book of Enoch, whence we learn 

 that an evil demon, Pcnemue by name, taught the children of men 

 writing and the use of ink and paper, with every secret of wisdom, 

 whereby many have gone astray from every period of the world, and by 

 their knowledge they perish. 



f A remarkable feature of the Pyramid standard is that it deals only 

 with the concrete, avoiding notation of any kind. It cannot be said to be 

 binary, decimal, or ducdccimal — it is, like number itself, independent of 

 them all, and its interpreter must find and apply his own radix. In this 

 respect it is consistent with its plan, for it is unique among Egy-ptian 

 monuments in that it is absolutely without inscription, bearing neither 

 hieroglyph nor alphabetic symbol. Piazzi Smyth was as thorough a 

 decimalist as he was an opponent of the " atheistic mrlre," but he could 

 find no decimal or other radix in the structure. In form it is a five-sided 

 crystal, and if it has a key-number (which is doubtful) that number 

 would seem to be 5, for its cubit is 5 x 5 inches. 



