Wellington Philosophical Society. 555 
ABSTRACT 
The author exhibited a part of a roll of a Samaritan Pentateuch, brought by him from 
Nablous, the ancient Shechem. He then read a paper briefly narrating the history of the 
Kingdom of Israel or Samaria; discussing the question of the probable origin of the 
‘Samaritans ” who were in occupation of the country at the time of the return of the 
. Jews from Babylon; tracing the history of the Samaritan nation under the Roman Empire 
and through the middle ages; and mentioning the accounts contained in the Samaritan 
chronicles. He tl ferred to the bringing of theS it to Europe, and the 
controversy which raged as to its supposed superiority to the Jewish form ; butistated that 
it is now all but universally believed that the latter represents the original text. After 
describing the great MS. at Nablous, which he had himself examined, he discussed the 
question of the way in which the Samaritans had become possessed of the Pentateuch, 
maintaining that the more probable view was that it had been brought to them by 
Manasseh, a Jewish Priest expelled from Jerusalem by Nehemiah. He then mentioned 
more in detail some of the points in which the Samaritan differs from the Jewish version, 
especially the shape of the letters, and the words added by the Samaritan to Exodus xx., 
18. After speaking of the rolls now at St. Petersburg and Cambridge, he gave a full 
account of the Samaritan Passover, Nablous being the only place in the world where the 
Passover, as described in the Book of Exodus, is still celebrated. 
The Rev. Mr. Van Staveren examined the fragment and expressed himself highly 
pleased with it and the author’s remarks. 
5. “The Law of Gavelkind,” by Coleman Phillips. (Transactions, 
p. 518.) 
6. Dr. Hector exhibited the original curve drawn by the large barograph at the 
Melbourne Observatory on the 27th and 28th of August last, which have very courteously 
been sent to him by Professor Ellery. This curve shows abnormal oscillations similar to 
those which he (Dr. Hector) had pointed out at previous meetings of the Society on 
29th August and 26th September last as having been produced simultaneously by the 
barographs at Wellington and Dunedin. By expressing these curves in the same local 
time it was found that the oscillations occurred about 90 minutes earlier at Melbourne 
than in New Zealand. If, as was very probable, these remarkable oscillations were 
connected with the great eruption in Sunda Straits, by measuring the distance along great 
circles the actual difference in the time would be reduced to about 75 minutes, which 
would give for the velocity of the transmission of these curious atmospheric waves 600 
miles an hour or 1,000 feet per second, or nearly the velocity of sound. 
This seems to point to the dispersal of waves through a medium very different from 
anything we are acquainted with, and suggests the probability of the existence of a some- 
what definite limit in altitude to the terrestrial atmosphere with which we are familiar, 
and in which all our winds and slow moving cyclonic impulses are transmitted. On the 
occasion of a great outburst of f from th th’s surface, such as the late Java eruption, 
it is probable that a volume of gaseous matter may be projected through this denser part 
of the atmospheric envelope, and being there condensed under very different conditions of 
temperature and pressure, gives rise to pulsations that traverse the upper and more 
attenuated medium. . 
Dr. Hector mentioned that the extraordinary coloured glow in the sky which has been 
visible every clear night and morning since the first week in September, seemed to support 
this view by proving the existence at an enormous altitude of some vapourous matter 
capable of refracting the sun’s light into its prismatic components. He had observed, to 
