848 
lation of tables of the rising and setting of the 
stars for a period extending backward some 9,- 
000 years, and by a painstaking discussion of 
the data so amassed. A part of the work de- 
scribed has been done by Professor Lockyer, and 
the results reached since the year 1890 (when 
some of them were first announced by him) are 
set forth inthisvolume. During visits to Egypt 
he executed surveys of a few temple-sites and 
the necessary calculations have since been made. 
The French Scientific Commission which ac- 
companied Napoleon in his Hgyptian campaign, 
and the Commission sent by the Prussian goy- 
ernment in 1844, have published a vast amount 
of accurate information regarding the sites, etc., 
of Egyptian monuments which bears directly 
on the problem in hand. 
Professor Lockyer’s general conclusion is 
that certain of the Egyptian temples are, in 
fact, oriented by the stars as well as others 
by the sun. The same conclusion was reached 
quite independently in 1885 by Professor Nis- 
sen, of Germany, though his work was unknown 
to Lockyer at the time. Such is the general 
problem. The particular developments are 
given in a stout octavo volume first printed in 
1893 and now reprinted without change, I be- 
lieve. 
The course of the argument in detail is some- 
what as follows: Egyptian chronology, the 
succession of kings, must be regarded as com- 
paratively well known, considering the great 
difficulties of the subject. Making all allow- 
ances for errors, the dates of many temples are 
well fixed by their inscriptions. The mythol- 
ogy of Egypt has likewise been studied with 
remarkable success, and this mythology has, in 
general, astronomical relations, as indeed is 
the case in many countries. In Egypt, as in 
other lands, there were gods related to the sun, 
the moon, and a special goddess for the stars. 
Their zodiac is represented by existing sculp- 
tures whose figures have at once a mythologic 
and an astronomic meaning. The priests made 
sacrifices at dawn and at other seasons related 
to the sun’s diurnal and annual courses. In- 
seriptions at Thebes show that the risings of 
stars were observed throughout the entire year ; 
and the heliacal rising of Sirius was connected 
with the floods of the Nile. In Egypt, as in 
SCIENCE. 
[N.S. Vou. VI. No. 153. 
India, the pantheon was mainly composed of 
solar deities, but some of the personages had 
intimate relations to stars and planets. 
During the course of the year the sun rises 
and sets at various points of the horizon of any 
place. It rises farther to the north during the 
summer, farther to the south during the winter 
season. A star, however, rises at (sensibly) the 
same point of the horizon for a century or so, 
though the stars, too, have a slow motion due 
to precession, which will, finally, produce great 
alterations in their points of rising. The rising 
of a star with the sun ata certain period of the 
year—its heliacal rising—would be a marked 
phenomenon, especially if the date coincided 
with a critical time of the agricultural cycle. 
Any recurring event of this nature may serve 
to mark off dates—the heliacal rising of a 
star; the rising (or setting) of the sun at the 
equinoxes or solstices ; or the rising or setting 
ofa fixed star. The orientation of a temple 
might well preserve the direction in which the 
semi-sacred appearance was visible and there 
is no doubt that many structures have been so 
oriented. From ancient times worshippers haye 
chosen to face in a fixed direction during their 
devotion or sacrifice. 
The existence of solar temples in many parts 
of the world is established beyond a doubt. 
Some Egyptian temples are oriented to the sun 
at its rising at the solstices (Karnak, Thebes, 
etc.); some to its rising at the equinoxes 
(Memphis, Gizeh, etc.) according to Professor 
Lockyer. The orientation is changed from 
solstitial to equinoctial in these cases, and Lock- 
yer points out that so fundamental a variation 
in astronomical thought strongly suggests a 
change in the ruling race and religion. The 
rise of the Nile is related to the season of the 
summer solstice; that of the Tigris and Eu- 
phrates to the season of the spring equinox. 
Have we here, the author asks, an indication 
of two races which expressed ideas in the 
monuments? The suggestion is ingenious. So 
far as I know, it has not been very hospitably 
received by experts. It is interesting to note 
that the temple of the sun at Peking is ori- 
ented to the winter solstice; Stonehenge to the 
solstice of summer; the temple of Solomon 
similarly to the temple of Isis at the Pyramids ; 
