y2dy 4, 1889] 



NATURE 



237 



the first satellite to be rather brighter than the second." The 

 diameters of the first and second satellites are about looo and 

 800 miles respectively, hence Herschel's comparative measures 

 were correct. R. A. Gregory. 



BABYLONIAN ASTRONOMY} 



I. 



/^LASSICAL writers seem to be unanimous in considering 

 ^-^ the Babylonians as the most ancient astronomers ; a close 

 examination shows, however, that the statement emanated from 

 one or two writers, and that all the others merely repeated it 

 without taking the trouble of verifying it. The figures given by 

 various authors as to the period covered by the Babylonian 

 astronomical observations are most extravagant, but the disagree- 

 ment of the authors proves their inaccuracy. In spite of all dis- 

 crepancies, one fact comes out clearly — that is, the Semitic origin 

 of the Babylonian astronomy. Belus, the eponymic king of 

 Babylon, considered by the classics as the first ruler or even the 

 colonizer of Babylonia, is called the " inventor of astronomy," 

 and Seneca considered the work of Berosus as a translation of 

 that of Belus. 



If we turn now to the native documents — the tablets now in 

 the British Museum — we can class them under two distinct 

 periods, those previous to the Greek rule and those contempo- 

 raneous with the Seleucids. Some tablets of the first period give 

 us lists of certain astronomical or atmospheric observations, with 

 the events which took place at the same time ; the others are 

 mere reports of the official astronomers stating what they 

 observed, as the occurrence or non-occurrence of an eclipse. A 

 characteristic point is that the observations are in no case dated : 

 the day and the month are, indeed, given, but not the year ; and 

 this leaves no doubt as to the real character of these documents. 



The Babylonians held the belief that the sky was a reflection of 

 what was going on upon the earth : if, therefore, a certain event 

 took place at the time of the conjunction of two stars, the same 

 event would repeat itself when the same conjunction would take 

 place. There were no predictions, but merely statements of real 

 facts taking place at the same time in the sky and upon the 

 earth, the actual date of which was of no consequence, as the 

 object in view was to establish the supposed connection between 

 what happened in the sky and what happened upon the earth 

 — in" short, correlative events. It appears also that the 

 Babylonians admitted the existence of a cosmical year — that 

 is, a period after wjiich the same events were to occur 

 again ; this period was one of 360,000 years. The number 

 was obtained by a mere play on figures. The basal num- 

 ber of the Semites was six, as the system used to form their 

 numerals shows ; by multiplying it by ten (the number of the 

 fingers) they formed the soss, 60 ; by multiplying again by ten 

 was formed the ner, 600 ; and the square of the former gave 3600, 

 the sar, or " multitude." The cosmical year was supposed to be 

 formed of 100 sari, or the square of the ner ; this was probably 

 the number given by Berosus to the antediluvian period, 10 sari 

 be'ng attributed to each king. From this number weie derived 

 those given by the classics as the period of the Babylonian 

 astronomical observations — 720,000 years (or two cosmical years) 

 by Epigenes, 1,440,000 (or four cosmical years) by Simplicius ; 

 the 490,000 years given by Berosus, according to Pliny, represent 

 one cosmical year and 130,000 years, elapsed in his opinion, of 

 the actual period. It cannot be doubted, however, that the 

 stars have been observed in Babylonia from a very higli antiquity, 

 for we have lists of eclipses for almost every day in the year, and 

 as these eclipses actually took place, they prove a long period of 

 observations ; some of the astronomical statements also refer to 

 the pre- Akkadian period— that is, earlier than 7000 B.C. If the 

 Babylonians, in spite of this long period of observations, never 

 arrived at any correct knowledge of the motion of the planets 

 and stars, it is no doubt due to their deficient calendar. 



Omen-taking being therefore the only object of the Babylonian 

 astronomers, or rather star-gazers, they distributed the stars and 

 planets under the direction of certain gods, according to the in- 

 fluence attributed to them. This has unfortunately thrown much 

 confusion into their nomenclature, for the name of the god is 

 sometimes taken for that of the star which he is supposed to 

 influence, and the same god influences several ; in some cases, 

 also, the same star is sometimes under the influence of one god, 



' Abstract of the first lecture delivered by Mr. G. Berlin at the British 

 Museum. 



sometimes under that of another. Besides this, we have many 

 groups of seven stars : the seven dibhu or planets, the seven- 

 viasic or double stars, the seven zih-ti or males, &c. The stars 

 were also divided by regions — the twelve stars of the north, and 

 the twelve stars of the south — and associated in groups of two 

 with certain months ; the months themselves were associated with 

 certain regions, and were under the guidance of a god. 



In all this we see the rudiments or rather germs of astrology ; 

 but, as astrology requires a knowledge of the movements of the 

 planets, the Babylonians never arrived at this point — they merely 

 took omens, and to do so they appear to have proceeded exactly 

 as did the augurs of Rome. They described first in the sky a 

 circle with their rod, divided this circle into eight divisions by 

 lines passing through the centre, and then observed the position 

 of the stars in this imaginary geometrical figure, and what kind 

 of phenomena took place, in order to draw from them their 

 omens. Having made his observation, the operator, or priest, 

 then referred to the lists of omens, copies of which have come to- 

 us, to ascertain if the same celestial phenomenon had already 

 been noted, expecting as correlative fact the same terrestriaf 

 event which had happened in the previous case. 



It may be noticed, before concluding, that all the astro- 

 nomical omen tablets recovered from Nineveh or Babylon are 

 written in the Semitic language ; there are no doubt a great 

 many ideograms, but the phonetic complements, the words 

 spelt phonetically, and the grammatical peculiarities show that 

 the idiom used must be Semitic. 



UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL 

 INTELLIGENCE. 



Dublin. — At the Summer Commencements of the University 

 of Dublin, held in Trinity College, Dublin, on June 27, 

 Mr. F. W. Burbidge, Curator of the Trinity College Botanical 

 Gardens, received the honorary degree of M. A. The Public 

 Orator, Prof. Palmer, called attention to the benefits con- 

 ferred on botanical science by Mr. Burbidge, by his travels 

 in Borneo, and by his labours in elucidating the natural history 

 of those classic flowers the Narcissi and the Hellebores. The 

 honorary degree of LL.D. was conferred on Mr. Valentine 

 Ball, F. R. S., the Director of the Science and Art Museum, 

 Dublin, and at one time Professor of Geology and Mineralogy 

 in Trinity College, Dublin, whose works on the geology and 

 mineralogy of India, and researches on the identification of the 

 animals and plants of India which were known to the early 

 Greek authors, merited the eulogium pronounced on them by 

 the Orator. 



SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 



London. 



Linnean Society, June 6. — Mr. Carruthers, F.R.S., Presi- 

 dent, in the chair. — Dr. John Anderson, Mr. J. G. Baker, Dr. 

 Braithwaite, and Mr. F. Crisp, were nominated Vice-Presidents. 

 — Prof. Martin Duncan exhibited under the microscope some 

 beautifully mounted preparations of the ambulacral tentacles of 

 Cidaris papillata, and drew attention to the fact, previously un- 

 recorded, that the tentacles of the abactinal region of the test 

 differ in form and character from those of the actinal region. 

 The latter have a well-developed terminal disk, and are richly 

 spiculated ; whereas the former have no disk, but terminate 

 distally in a pointed extremity with very few spiculse. Mr. W. 

 P. Sladen made some remarks on the significance of this 

 dimorphism with reference to its archaic character, and its 

 relation to the primitive forms of Echinoids and Asteroids. — 

 Mr. Narracott exhibited a singular fasciated growth of Ranun- 

 culus acris, found at Castlebar Hill, Ealing. — Mr. H. B. 

 Hewetson exhibited under the microscope a parasite of Pallas's 

 Sand Grouse {Syrrhaptes paradoxus) taken from a bird shot in 

 Yorkshire, and described as a species of Argas. Mr. Harting 

 pointed out that an apparently different parasite from the same 

 species of bird had been recently described by Mr. Pickard 

 Cambridge {Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist., May 1889) under the name 

 HcEinaphysalis peregrinus. — Dr. Cogswell showed some examples 

 of Jerusalem Artichoke and Potato, to illustrate the spiral 

 development of the shoots from right to left. — Governor Moloney, 

 of the colony of Lagos, exhibited a large collection of birds and 

 insects from the Gambia, the result of twelve months' collecting 



