CHKONOKOCY 



CHRYSALIS 



229 



room left for innumerable discrepancies as to 

 ntes. 



ItcM'l.'s differing in the style i.e. Julian or 

 orian two nations frequently began the year 

 HI ilifferent times. A Scottish writer assigned the 

 execution of Charles I. to 1649, and his Knglish 

 contemporary to 164S, though both agreeing as to 

 the limn ill mid day ; because in Scotland the year 

 began with the 1st of January, as it had done since 

 1600, and in England the 25th March was still New- 

 year's Day. Throughout Kurope there was much 

 variation *in this respect, not only between one 

 country and another, out even in the same country 

 as between one time and another, as well as between 

 its different provinces at the same time. The most 

 common New-year's Davs were these four (a) 25th 

 December; (6) 25th March; (c) Easter; (rf) 1st 

 January. Thus England used both the first and 

 second from the 6th century to 1066 ; the fourth 

 till 1155; then the second till the day after 31st 

 December 1751, which was called 1st January 

 17"'-. Scotland used the second till 1599, when 

 the day after 31st December 1599 was called 1st 

 January 1600. France under Charlemagne used 

 the first, and afterwards also the third and second 

 till 1563. The 25th March was originally chosen 

 by Dionysius Exiguus, the author of our present 

 era, as being the Annunciation exactly nine 

 months before Christmas. A survival of its use in 

 England appears in the annual Treasury accounts, 

 anu in preserving Lady-day as a quarter-day. 



In many English documents before 2d September 

 1752, owing to the delay in accepting the Gregorian 

 reformation, we find a date thus, 12th February 170^ 

 or 1706-7, meaning 1706 if the year begin on 25th 

 March, or 1707 if it begin on the 1st of January. 

 This ambiguity of course only applies to days 

 falling between 1st January and 24tn March. 



A third cause of error or uncertainty arose from 

 dating ancient writings not only by saints' days 

 and church festivals, but by some Latin psalm or 

 other portion of the service which the clergy ( who 

 of course were generally the clerks) associated with 

 the day in question. Thus we find as a date ( 15th 

 century) 'the Wednesday next after Deus yui 

 erranttbus,' and (in 1610) 'the Sunday on winch 

 the church sings Reddite quce sunt Ccesaris Ccesari. ' 

 A Scottish parliament or 1318 met at Scone 'on 

 the Sunday next after the feast of St Andrew the 

 Apostle ; ' and an English one of 1399 is only dated 

 in a contemporary account by the phrase 'on 

 Monday the feast of St Faith the Virgin.' 



A special complication arose from dating docu- 

 ments, and especially all state papers, by the year 

 of the king's reign, as already referred to. Even in 

 Rymer's Fcedera, a work of the highest importance 

 in English chronology, we find that from this cause 

 many of the public papers from Richard I. to 

 Edward IV. are misdated by a whole year. Our 

 early sovereigns dated their reign from the corona- 

 tion, and the writers of history frequently assumed 

 that every king's succession was officially dated 

 from the day of his predecessor's death. In the 

 case of popes of Rome, moreover, scarcely any 

 two of tnem in immediate succession, until recent 

 times, dated or computed on the same principle ; 

 and some of them vary their methods even within 

 their own reigns. In this connection may be noted 

 a clerical error in the Scottish records of David II., 

 where after his return from captivity every date of 

 his reign is given one year short. "Frequently too 

 in public documents, both English and Scottish, we 

 read 'King Henry,' 'King Edward,' 'King Robert,' 

 or ' King James, without further qualification ; so 

 that for purposes of chronology we must study the 

 penmansnip, the style and wording, the seal, and 

 above all the names of the persons enumerated. 

 Even then the antiquary or historian is sometimes 



unable to reduce the date of an instrument or 

 letter within a narrower range than fifty or even 

 a hundred years. 



A reference to contemporary history will aome- 

 timr> ii\ tin- date. For example, there are two 

 acts in the Scottish statute-book which are thus 

 dated one, 'at Aberdeen in Lent next after the 

 coming in Scotland of Vivian the Legate of the 

 Apostolic See;' the other, at Stirling, 'on the 

 Monday next before the feast of St Margaret the 

 Maiden next after the first coronation of I'hilip 

 king of the French.' From these data we can 

 assign their dates as 1177 and 1130 respectively. 



Bibliography. Scaliger's De Emendation e Temporum 

 (1583); Usher's Annales V. and N. Tettamcnti (1650) ; 

 Sir I. Newton's Chronology Amended (1728); L'Art de 

 Verifier leu Dates (1818-31); Herschel's Astronomy ; 

 Ideler's Lehrbuch ( 1831 ) ; Clinton's Fasti, Ac. ; Chron- 

 n/oi/i/ <>f History, by Sir Harris Nicolas (1838); Brinck- 

 mann's Handbuch (1882); Woodward and Cates's Ency- 

 clopedia of Chronology (1872); Whitworth's Church- 

 man's Almanac from 1201 to 2000 (1883) ; Brockiuann's 

 System der Chronologic (1883) ; James C. Macdonald's 

 Chronologies and Calendars ( 1897 ). 



Chronometer, a time-keeper for determining 

 the longitude at sea, is essentially a large watch 

 with compensated balance-wheel. See HOROLOGY. 



ChrononhotontholOgOS was a burlesque by 

 Henry Carey (q.v.), in which Aldeborontepnosco- 

 pliornio and Rigdumfunnidos were characters. 



Chronoscope* an instrument contrived by 

 Sir Charles Wheatstone to measure the duration of 

 certain short-lived luminous phenomena, such as 

 the velocity of light, or the electric spark, of which 

 the eye itself can be no judge, owing to the per- 

 sistence of impressions on the eye after the cause 

 of sensation has ceased. The phenomenon is ob- 

 served by reflection in a mirror in such rapid 

 motion that the image of the luminous object 

 would appear to describe a circular arc the length 

 of which must be a measure of the duration of the 

 light. The electric spark is found by this test to 

 have no duration, because its image in the mirror 

 is a mere point. The chronoscope has also been 

 used for measuring the time of flight of projectiles. 

 By means of it Foucault even determined the differ- 

 ence of the velocity of light when passing through 

 air and water, and thus deduced the corresponding 

 indices of refraction. 



4 liriKlim. a town of Bohemia, 74 miles ESE. 

 of Prague by rail. It manufactures sugar, beer, 

 alcohol, and artificial manure, and has important 

 horse-markets. Pop. 12,128, mostly Czechs. 



Chrysalis, or CHRYSALID, a term originally 

 applied to the golden-coloured resting stages in the 

 life-history of many butterflies, but sometimes ex- 

 tended to 'all forms of pupa 1 or nymphs that is, to 

 the second stages in the history of insects which 

 undergo complete metamorphosis. It is the stage 

 which results from the fasting quiescence of the 

 generally active and voracious larva or caterpillar, 

 and also, of course, the stage which after one or 

 rarely two moults awakens into the winged insect 

 or imago. During the whole or part of it* often 

 prolonged existence, the pupa or chrysalid i* -\- 

 ternally quiescent ; but internally most profound 

 structural changes are going on, which amount in 

 many cases to a thorough reconstruction, and 

 always result in the development of wings and 

 Mznal organs. Chrysalids vary greatly in degree 

 and duration of quiescence, in habit, in the con- 

 dition of their appendages, and in the develop- 

 ment of external covering. The colours also vary 

 greatly, and in some cases the golden or otherwise 

 coloured appearance is doubtless protective. They 

 are generally found hidden away in protected 

 corners, or underground, or suspended from the 

 leaves of plants. The completion of the internal 



