250 NOTICES OF THE MEETINGS [ Feb. 7, 
The Lecturer then stated that he had examined in greater or less 
detail every eclipse from B.C. 630 to B. C. 580, and that no other 
eclipse could pass over Asia Minor. That selected by Messrs. 
Baily and Oltmanns, it was now shewn, passed to the north of 
the sea of Azof. 
In concluding this astronomical discussion, the Lecturer expressed 
his opinion that the date B. C. 585 was now established for the 
eclipse of Thales beyond the possibility of a doubt. 
The Lecturer then alluded to the tradition preserved by Sir 
John Malcolm from the poetical History of Persia, that Kai Kaoos 
(whom Sir John Malcolm considers to be the same as Cyaxares 
or Astyages, or possibly to represent both), having marched on a 
military expedition into Mazenderam, himself and his army were 
struck with sudden blindness; and that this had been foretold by 
a magician. Sir John Malcolm considered, and it appears most 
probable, that this is the record of a total eclipse of the sun; but 
no total eclipse near this time passed over Mazenderam. The Lec- 
turer conceived therefore that it might refer to the eclipse of Thales, 
though with a strange perversion of the name of the province. 
Such perversions however occur in the Persian poetical history with 
regard to other names, which there is reason to believe are cor- 
rectly given by the Greeks. The name Xerxes, for instance, has 
been found by Colonel Rawlinson in the Behistun inscriptions under 
the form Khshayarsha, of which the Greek Xerxes was probably 
a fair oral representation ; whereas the name preserved in the poetical 
history is Isfundear. These confusions however are incidental to 
poetical history: thus if the Henriade of Voltaire should remain 
as the only history of the times to which it relates, the name of 
the king who preceded Henri IV. would go down as Valois, instead 
of Henri III. [G. B. A.]} 
GENERAL MONTHLY MEETING, 
Monday, February 7. 
Wituiam Pos, Ese., M.A, F.R.S., Treasurer and Vice-President, 
in the Chair. 
Thomas W. Allies, Esq. John Henderson, Esq. 
J. Bell Brooking, Esq. Thomson Hankey, Esq. 
John Forster, Esq., F.L.S. 
were duly elected Members of the Royal Institution. 
