422 TRANS. ST. LOUIS ACAD. SCIENCE. 



the nativity of Anubis, written in Greek. See my Astron. ^g. 

 p. 213.. 



How important all such planetary configurations are for an- 

 cient history and chronology needs no exposition ; for the Egyp- 

 tians, Greeks, and Romans, being destitute both of the Copernican 

 system and planetary tables, could not calculate earlier longitudes 

 of the planets ; the places of the planets on ancient astronomical 

 monuments were really empiric observations, and therefore I'eli- 

 able. It is, moreover, an easy matter to determine the date of 

 any ancient planetary configuration by means of our planetary 

 tables, because these are based on exact modern observations and 

 on the multiplication table. Besides, no ancient planetary con- 

 figuration can return twice during a period of 2146 Julian years. 

 Suppose Menes to have settled in Egypt on that day in which the 

 © stood in "K 0°, the 3 in VJ, b in CtJ, H in U, % in C^, ? in "Kr 

 ? in ^, a similar planetary configuration could return only after 

 2146 years. During this period 113 renewals of the lunar cyclus 

 of 19 years, 74 revolutions of Saturn, 179 revolutions of Jupiter, 

 67 revolutions of % (of 32 years each), 268 revolutions of $ (of 8 

 years each, and 165 revolutions of 5 (of 13 years each) were per- 

 formed, the fractions being neglected. Supposing, then, Menes 

 to have settled in Egypt, as the ancients report, at the beginning 

 of the first Canicular period, and on that day the planets to have 

 stood in the aforesaid signs, it incontrovertibly follows that Menes 

 entered Egypt either in 2780 or 634 B.C. The same, of course, 

 is the case with all other planetary configurations of the ancients ; 

 none of them could occur twice during 2146 years. See the au- 

 thor's Astron. ^g. p. 50. 



By the way, since the astronomers maintain that the accelera- 

 tions of the moon's motions are periodical only, and that they are 

 effected by the attractive powers of the planets, it is evident that 

 the perturbations of the moon by the planets must commence 

 anew as soon as the seven planets return to their former places 

 after 2146 years; during which, moreover, the precession of the 

 fixed stars amounts to nearly 30 degrees, an entire sign of the 

 Zodiac. It is strange, indeed, that the astronomers from Ptole- 

 my to this day failed to recognize this long planetary period, and, 

 whilst determining the secular accelerations of the moon, to take 

 it into account. It was discovered as early as 1846, and referred 



