152 Dr Pearson, On a Manuscript Volume [Feb. 25, 



firmament or sphere of the fixed stars. These two expressions 

 belong distinctly to the Ptolemean as opposed to the Copernican 

 system of astronomy: and seem to prove that the Tables were 

 composed at a time when the nomenclature at any rate, if not the 

 principles of the former, had not been fully superseded by the latter. 



The following passage is taken from Kircher's "Ars magna 

 lucis et umbrae," p. 546. (Rome, 1646.) 



Quare sive terra ipsae lunae opponenda sit, ut umbra sua, 

 quae illud usque exporrigatur, earn obscuret ; sive Luna Soli 

 objiciatur, ut lumen ejus subtrahat terrae : necesse est utrinque 

 Planetam sub ecliptica reperiri. Debes autem animo coucipere 

 in duobus eclipticae locis pari graduum intervallo transire in 

 transversum lineam illam, sive circulum, per quern Luna fertur, 

 qui ab ecliptica resiliens intervallum quoddam relinquit apertum ; 

 ubi vero conjungitur eclipticae una parte Caput Draconis, altera 

 Cauda vocant Astronomi; melius Ptolemaeus, crvvheaiJiov dva/3i- 

 ^d^ovra et Kara^i/Sd^ovTa, id est nodum ascendentem et descen- 

 dentem. 



Similarly Caspar Schott in his " Cursus Mathematicus," says, 

 page 276 (Herbip. i.e. Wurzhurg, 1661): 



Duae illae intersectiones A et B vocantur a Graecis crvvhea- 

 fioi. Nodi ; a Latinis puncta ecliptica ; eo quod luminaria in 

 ipsis aut non procul ab ipsis conjuncta vel opposita, patiuntur 



eclipsin ; ab Arabibus caput et cauda draconis dicuntur Duo 



puncta C et B quae maxime ab ecliptica recedunt et a nodis 

 absunt 90 grad. appellautur limites quia sunt meta evagationis 

 Lunae a solis directo tramite ; ab Arabibus vero et vulgo dicuntur 

 ventres draconis. Et punctum C est limes boreus, D austrinus. 

 Arabis appellationis causa est quod segmenta ilia AEGB et 

 AF . DB referunt similitudinem serpentum sen draconum, quorum 

 caput et Cauda sit in ^ et -6 ventres in GE, DF. 



jr 

 AEBF is the ecliptic. ACBD the moon's path. 



