358 



NATURE 



\March 7, 1878 



this to have been the case with regard to the various dimen- 

 sions of the tabernacle constructed by Moses, of Solomon's 

 Temple, and the later temple as described by Ezekiel, 

 The length of the Royal Egyptian Cubit was determined 

 by Sir Isaac' Newton, from Greaves's measurements in the 

 great pyramid, to have been between 20'62 and 2078 

 English inches. Amongst these measurements the so- 

 called King's Chamber was found to be 20 of such cubits 

 in length, and 10 in breadth. The passages were 2 cubits 

 broad. The principal gallery was 4 cubits broad, with 

 a middle way of polished marble 2 cubits broad, 

 and a raised bench on each side i cubit broad and 

 I cubit high. In Newton's time, no direct evidence of 

 the true length of the ancient Egyptian cubit had been 

 brought to light. We now know from several ancient 

 standard cubit rods since discovered, that the mean 

 length of the royal Egyptian cubit was equal to 20'67 

 English inches. In this essay Mr. Petrie states that all 

 the deduced units of measure were in every instance found 

 in a similar way independently of any known standard, and 

 have not been obtained by trying whether the measures 

 would fit any known unit. As to standards of measure, 

 they are only employed by the author to subject assump- 

 tions to proof, where such can be obtained. 



The least number of measurements that suffice to give 

 a unit with tolerable certainty is assumed to be three. 

 Long lengths were found of little value in obtaining the 

 unit, and moderately short lengths from about 2 to 20 

 feet are stated to be the best. After showing the 

 several modes of ascertaining as nearly as may be the 

 unit of measure from a given number of actual measure- 

 ments, that is to say, the ratio between them, the process 

 adopted has been to group together those units of any 

 one country and age that seemed to be identical, or 

 derived from and related to one another, and thence to 

 deduce the mean unit. In every case the probable error 

 has been computed and stated. This probable error is 

 assumed to arise from original errors in planning and 

 executing the work, and not in the more recent measure- 

 ments, as with reasonable caution such errors may be 

 tolerably avoided. 



The extent of the work undertaken by the author may 

 be judged of from the statement that more than 600 

 buildings and other remains have been examined and their 

 constructors' units deduced from the mean results of over 

 4,000 measurements. A considerable number of them 

 were made by the author, many being of objects in the 

 British Museum. To insure correctness the English 

 measure used by him was verified as to its accuracy at 

 the Standards' Office. 



The first series of groups relate to Egyptian architec- 

 tural remains, generally from the fourth dynasty to the 

 Roman period. The deduced «nits of the measurements 

 of loi monuments are stated in English inches and deci- 

 mal parts of an inch, and the number of independent 

 lengths from which each such unit was obtained is also 

 specified. The deduced units of one of these groups, con- 

 sisting of twenty-eight different monuments vary only 

 from 20-42 to 20-84 inches, the mean being 20-64, thus 

 agreeing very nearly with the ascertained length of the royal 

 cubit = 20-67 inches. From the remaining monuments 

 the author deduces other units several of which are mul- 

 tiples of the digit, the twenty-eighth part of the royal 



cubit. The common cubit, or cubit of a man, equal to 

 18-24 inches, has not yet been found inductively from 

 remaining monuments. 



The next series of monuments examined are those of 

 Babylonia and Assyria, Persia and Syria. These countries 

 are classed together as being intermixed in the style of their 

 art and the nature of their architectural remains. The re- 

 sults of the measurements of 102 monuments are given, 

 with various deduced units of measure. The Persian 

 monuments are chiefly those of Persepolis. It may be 

 more interesting to refer to the Syrian monuments as they 

 include those of Judiea and Palestine, and of Moab. As 

 an instance, the mean unit of 25-01 inches (varying from 

 24-57 to 25-55 inches) is found from six monuments, four 

 of which are at Jerusalem. This is taken to be the 

 mean length of the sacred Jewish cubit. It is to be 

 observed that in his " Dissertation on Cubits," Sir Isaac 

 Newton arrived at the conclusion that the length of this 

 cubit was 24-83 inches. It is now generally considered to 

 have been a little more than 25 inches, and it is supposed 

 to have been the cubit measure taken from Chalda^a by 

 the ancestors of the Jews, and to have ^continued in use 

 by their posterity in Egypt and Palestine. 



The countries that follow are Asia Minor and Greece. 

 The first of these affords eleven different units from 

 eighty-four measured monuments. Eight of these units 

 are known to have been used by nations that ruled there, 

 and the other three are connected with the units of adja- 

 cent countries. From Greece and its colony Sicily the 

 results of the measurements of forty-nine objects are 

 given, including Pelasgic and later monuments. 



Italy, Africa, and Sardinia are next classed together. 

 The results of the measurements of seventy-seven monu- 

 ments are shown under the head of Italy, including 

 Roman remains in Britain, Africa, and other countries 

 probably constructed with Italian units of measure. 



The mediaeval remains in Ireland and England con- 

 clude the several classed groups of monuments_measured. 

 The measurements of twenty-nine round towers and 

 churches connected with them in Ireland give two 

 deduced units. Out of eighty-one measured old English 

 remains the inch and foot were found to be the units in 

 sixteen cases only, the mean inch unit being equal to 

 0-9998 of our present standard inch, showing that on the 

 average the inch measure has not varied appreciably for 

 centuries. Several other units of other countries are 

 deduced from the remaining monuments. 



The last series of measurements are those of rude stone 

 remains and earthworks in various countries. At first 

 sight it does not appear possible that such objects should 

 lead to units of measure being derived from them ; but 

 the results show, in the author's opinion, that the more 

 regularly constructed remains were made by a measure- 

 using people. 



After mentioning the results of measurements partly of 

 the dimensions and partly of the relative positions of 

 various ancient stone remains and earthworks in this 

 country and in France, the results of about seventy 

 measurements of the dimensions of ancient North Ameri- 

 can earthworks are stated to lead to a unit varying from 

 12*50 to 12-72 inches, with a mean of 12-6 inches, divided 

 duodecimally. The mean unit of twelve Mexican measure- 

 ments was 10-65 inches. 



