129 
the 15 of Nineveh, and the 15 of Arbela. The former of these 
must be Ishtar, always called the mistress of Nineveh; and the 
latter is presumed to be the goddess named on the tablet, who 
presided over childbirth. Of the goddesses named on the 
obelisk, the first is stated to have been named Biltu and Jar- 
panitu. She was the wife of Bil; and is called ‘‘ mother of 
the gods,” as Bil is called their father. She is presumed to 
have been connected with the planet Venus, as Ishtar is cer- 
tainly the moon. The name of Jshtar occurs last on the 
obelisk ;-she was regarded as the wife of Assur, and mistress 
of Nineveh. Her name is used as an appellative for “ god- 
dess.” On the figure of a lion in the British Museum is a 
long inscription in honour of the goddess of war, to whom it 
is dedicated. She may have been the same as Jarpanitu. 
Mr. Haughton communicated an account of some experi- 
ments made by him during the last summer, on the reflexion 
of plane polarized light from the surface of transparent bodies. 
These experiments were made with sunlight, and repeatedly 
verified. The new laws established by the experiments are 
the following :— 
First Law.—Tff light polarized in any azimuth be incident 
on a transparent surface, and the angle of incidence be in- 
creased from 0° to 90°, the reflected elliptically polarized 
light has a minimum ratio of axes at the principal incidence, 
and is plane polarized at 0° and 90°; or the ratio of axes is 
infinity. 
Second Law.—That as the azimuth of the incident po- 
larization approaches a certain limit, which Mr. Haughton 
calls the circular limit, the minimum ratio of axes diminishes. 
Third Law.—That when the azimuth of the incident po- 
larization is equal to the circular limit, the ratio of axes of 
reflected light is unity; or the reflected light is circularly po- 
larized. 
