Sachse.] -^^ [Feb. 1, 



king is seen seated upon a throne, with his right leg extended, 

 while the prophet is applying a poultice of figs to the wicked car- 

 buncle. An attendant, in the rear, it will be noticed, holds a bas- 

 ketful of the same remedy in reserve. 



The above mention of the " Dial of Achaz " which had the prop- 

 erty of going backwards ten degrees at the command of the old 

 prophet, is the earliest reference to any instrument for the purpose 

 of marking the true time of day of which mention is made in the 

 world's history. 



Achaz, who was the son of Jotham and the eleventh king of 

 Judah, about the year 771 B.C. went to Damascus to greet his 

 benefactor, Tiglath Pileser. He saw there a beautiful altar, and 

 sent working drawings of it to Uriah, the priest in Jerusalem. An 

 altar was completed against his return. He likewise set up the dial 

 which is mentioned in the miraculous cure of his son Hezekiah, 

 thirteen years after the death of Achaz. This is the first dial upon 

 record, and is 140 years before Thales, and nearly 400 years before 

 Aristotle and Plato, and just a little previous to the lunar eclipses 

 observed at Babylon as recorded by Ptolemy. 



That this instrument and its peculiar properties were not unknown 

 to the scientific faculty of the Helmstadt University, is shown by 

 the Memoirs of Uffenbach, that were published at Ulm, in the early 

 part of the last century. The University at that time was presided 

 over by Dr. Johann Fabricius (Altdorfinus), who was the former 

 tutor at Altdorf of Johannes Kelpius, Magister of the Rosicruclan 

 Community, on the Wissahickon, in Pennsylvania (i 694-1 708). 



Zacharias von Uffenbach, the celebrated scientist and traveler, 

 and former classmate of the younger Falkner at Halle, notes in the 

 Index to his Memoirs, Sun-dial, — Hiskia, Where the Shadow Turns 

 Back, Curieux, ii, 542. But on referring to the place indicated, no 

 reference whatever to the subject is to be found. The inference is 

 that the whole matter was, at that time, suppressed by the Censor. 

 There is, however, a reference to the instrument by the same writer 

 in another volume of his Memoirs (Vol. i, 252) of which no mention 

 is to be found in the Index. 



Uffenbach, who was always careful to note down the most minute 

 particulars of any special scientific matters brought to his notice, 

 states that, while on a visit to the University Library, Abt Schmid 

 called his attention to a description of this peculiar instrument, and 

 then continues that " he would attribute the especial discovery of 



