EGYPTIAN SCIENCE 



to an approximate count. There is some reason to 

 believe that in the earliest period the Egyptians made 

 this count only 360 days. The fact that their year 

 was divided into twelve months of thirty days each 

 lends color to this belief; but, in any event, the mis- 

 take was discovered in due time and a partial remedy 

 was applied through the interpolation of a "little 

 month" of five days between the end of the twelfth 

 month and the new year. This nearly but not quite 

 remedied the matter. What it obviously failed to do 

 was to take account of that additional quarter of a day 

 which really rounds out the actual year. 



It would have been a vastly convenient thing for hu- 

 manity had it chanced that the earth had so accommo- 

 dated its rotary motion with its speed of transit about 

 the sun as to make its annual flight in precisely 360 days. 

 Twelve lunar months of thirty days each would then 

 have coincided exactly with the solar year, and most 

 of the complexities of the calendar, which have so puz- 

 zled historical students, would have been avoided ; but, 

 on the other hand, perhaps this very simplicity would 

 have proved detrimental to astronomical science by 

 preventing men from searching the heavens as care- 

 fully as they have done. Be that as it may, the com- 

 plexity exists. The actual year of three hundred and 

 sixty -five and (about) one -quarter days cannot be 

 divided evenly into months, and some such expedient 

 as the intercalation of days here and there is essential, 

 else the calendar will become absolutely out of har- 

 mony with the seasons. 



In the case of the Egyptians, the attempt at adjust- 

 ment was made, as just noted, by the introduction of 



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