SKETCH OF PROFESSOR FELIPE POEY. 547 



mouth. There are seven days between the setting in of a disease and 

 the critical day. There are seven climates in the habitable earth. 



"Eight is the first cube number, and there are also eight beatitudes. 



" Nine is the second square number, and there are also nine orders 

 of angels and the kyrie eleison is sung nine times in the mass. 



" Ten, according to some, is a perfect number, not in its composi- 

 tion like six, but because it contains inclosed in itself all the simple 

 numbers and all the properties, as of even and odd, perfect and im- 

 perfect, and it is the beginning of all numbers composed of tens, and 

 also for the foundation of our law. God gave to Moses the ten com- 

 mandments of the law, and ordered men to give to God the tithe, 

 which is one tenth of his gain or his labor. 



" Eleven is the first compound odd number. 



"Twelve is a number of great pre-eminence and utility. And, 

 although it is an excessively imperfect number, it is nevertheless of 

 great utility. For it can, first, be divided into more parts than any 

 number below it. For it can be evenly divided by 6, which is its |- ; 

 by 4, which is its ^ ; by 3, which is its ^ ; and by 2, which is its \. 

 And because the blessed Redeemer Jesus Christ wished to observe 

 the said number in choosing twelve apostles to found and form the 

 Holy Catholic Faith. Who for the foundation of the same composed 

 the twelve articles of the faith. And in imitation of them the lords 

 of the cathedral churches constitute twelve perpetuals to listen con- 

 tinually to the service of God the Creator ; twelve choralists to sing 

 the hymns of God and the saints. Likewise, on account of the con- 

 venience of this number, the good governors of cities commonly choose 

 twelve counselors to attend to the regulation of the public good. So 

 the astrological philosophers of the ancient times, experimenting and 

 considering the celestial natures and influences, divided the whole sky 

 into twelve equal parts which were called the twelve signs. And they 

 attributed to each a peculiar influence by subtile commixtion, and 

 established twelve months in the year for greater convenience. And 

 this is enough of the property of the numbers in particular. — Trans- 

 lated for the Popular Science Monthly from the Revue Scientifique. 



sk:etch of professor felipe poey. 



By Peofessok DAVID S. JORDAN. 



" A H, but you must see Don Felipe — he knows all about fishes!" is 

 ~l\. the first advice which the naturalist receives when he begins 

 to make collections of fishes in the markets of Havana. The writer 

 once had occasion to make such a collection, and he found soon that, 

 among fishermen and fish-mongers, the phrase " amigo de Don Felipe" 

 was ever a passport to honest dealing and to a real desire to aid him in 



