494 TRANS. ST. LOUIS ACAD. SCIENCE. 



that is, obviously, after sunrise, and not 8 hours after midnight. 

 He accordingly computed the said eclipse by means of eight dif- 

 ferent Tables, those of La Hire, Riccoli, Longomontanus, Wing, 

 Philolaus, Rudolph, Carlin, Flamstedt ; and yet the eclipse 

 preceded sunrise, according to all Tables, both in Pekin and 

 Gan-y-hein. And why? Because all these Tables were based 

 on Ptolemy's eclipses in the Almagest. Since, then, during a 

 period of 912 years only one total eclipse of the sun happened 

 on the same day in Pekin, we come to the eclipse in — 2192, 

 Oct. 10th, iSh. Par. T., i.e. ih. 36m. p.m., in Pekin (114 7' E. 

 of Paris) ; for all nations of antiquity commenced the civil day 

 with sunrise, for which reason the " 8th hour" commenced about 

 2 o'clock p.m. Since, moreover, the eclipse of the Chou-king 

 happened in Gan-y-hein, where the sun rose 20 minutes earlier 

 than in Pekin, it follows that the said eclipse was seen in Pekin 

 about two hours past noon, on Oct. nth, in — 2192, which day 

 was, as the Chinese report, the day of the autumnal equinox. 

 On that day ( — 2192, Oct. 10, iSh. Par. T.) the longitude of the 

 sun was nearly 6 8 o° 46' , that of the moon 6 8 6°4i', that of 

 the Q> 6 8 io° 22 . According to our Table, p. 429, the longi- 

 tude of the ft was shorter by 17 15' , and hence the ft lay 7 40' , 

 likely 6° only, west of the sun. According to the same Table, 

 the moon's longitude was 6 s o° 35', because it must be shortened 

 by 6° 6 1 '; but a more exact computation of the moon's place will 

 decide the question how far our coefficients concerning the secu- 

 lar accelerations of the moon, and her Apsides and Nodes, are to 

 be diminished. Besides, this eclipse is well qualified to determine 

 more exactly the secular acceleration of our globe. Finally, it is 

 not to be wondered at that our eclipse happened 34 years earlier 

 than the present chronology of the Chinese emperors requires ; 

 for, in copying ancient manuscripts, the ciphers were most of all 

 subject to corruptions, as the copies of Manetho's dynasties in 

 Eusebius, Africanus, and in the Armenian translation of Euse- 

 bius, demonstrate. (See the author's "Theologische Schriften der 

 alten ./Eg.," 1855, p. 104.) By the way, all students of Chinese 

 literature maintain that Fohi, "during whose life the columns of 

 the heavens broke down," is the Chinese Noah ; and the Chinese 

 annals, as we have seen, refer him to — 3332, whilst the deluge, 

 according to the corrected Septuagint and the planetary configu- 



