160 
flexion, and which have been printed in vol. xviii. pp. 70, 71, 
of the Transactions of the Academy; but that he had not 
yet found leisure to make the various adjustments which are 
necessary in order to obtain satisfactory results with it. The 
instrument is beautifully executed by Mr. Grubb, who him- 
self contrived the subordinate mechanism, by which the re- 
quisite movements are effected with perfect ease to the 
observer. 
The President read the first part of a paper by the Rev. 
Dr. Hincks, on the Years and Cycles of the ancient 
Egyptians. 
The author’s object in this paper is to oppose the re- 
ceived opinion, that the Egyptian year originally consisted of 
360 days, and that at some epoch, on which learned men 
are not agreed, five additional days were annexed to it, in 
order to approximate more closely to the length of a solar 
revolution. His own opinion is contained in the five follow- 
ing propositions, which it is the business of his paper to 
establish. 
Ist. In the early part of the eighteenth century, before 
the christian era, there occurred a marked chronological 
epoch in Egypt. 
2nd. Before this epoch the Egyptians used a year, of 
which the commencement took place at a fixed season, and 
the average length of which was consequently equal to the 
tropical year ; while after this epoch, they used the wander- 
ing year of 365 days. 
3rd. Between this chronological epoch, and the year of 
our Lord, 34, there elapsed six cycles of some sort or 
other. 
4th. The nature of these cycles was such, that in one 
of them, the astronomical phenomenon which marked the 
commencement of the old fixed year, travelled forward 
through a fifth part of the wandering year, or 73 days; and 
