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an opinion, that the planets have a great influence on animal 

 life. 



The fun never deviates from the middle of the zodiac ; 

 i. e. from the ecliptic : the planets rJ' do n.ore or lefs. 

 Their greateft deviations, called latitude:, are the meafure 

 of the breadth of the zodiac ; which is broader, or narrower, 

 as the greateft latitude of the planets is made more or lefs. 

 Accordingly fome make it 1 6, fome i8, and fome 20 

 degrees broad. 



The zodiac interfering the equator obliquely makes an 

 angle with it of 23 degrees and a half; or, more pre- 

 cifely, of 23° 29'; which is what we call the obliquity 

 of the zodiac, and is the fun's greateft declination. See 

 Ecliptic. 



The zodiac is divided into twelve portions, called ^^nj ; 

 and thofe divifions, or figns, are denominated from the con- 

 ftellations which anciently pofleffed each part. But the 

 zodiac being immoveable, and the ftars having a motion 

 from weft to eaft, thofe conftellations now r.o longer cor- 

 refpond to their proper figns ; whence arifes what we call 

 the precejfion of the equinoxes. 



When a ftar, therefore, is faid to be in fuch a fign of the 

 zodiac, it is not to be underftood of that fign, or confteh 

 lation, of the firmament, but only of that twelfth part of 

 the zodiac, or dodecatemory of it. 



Cafiini has alfo obferved a traft in the heavens, within 

 whofe bounds moft of the comets, though not all of them, are 



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obferved to keep, which, for this reafon, he calls the Kodiac 

 of the comets. 



This he makes as broad as the other zodiac, and marks 

 it with figns, or conftellations, like that ; as Antinous, Pe- 

 gafus, Andromeda, Taurus, Orion, the LefFerDog, Hydra, 

 the Centaur, Scorpion, and Sagittary. 



Zodiac, Hindoo. The early inveftigators of Hindoo 

 mythology, which comprehends not only their aftronomy, 

 but every fcience, and almoft every art, of wliich the Hindoos 

 have any knowledge, were furprifed to find that the days 

 of the week were named, as with us, after the planets, and 

 in the fame order. It was natural enough to fuppofe that 

 the Hindoo almanac was borrowed from the Arabians. 

 The few Brahma»s who at that time had accefs to Euro- 

 peans of fcience, fuppofed the fame of us, when they dif- 

 covered the fimilitude of fable and of name. But it has 

 been made manifeft by the inveftigations of later writers, 

 that the Hindoo zodiac is of very great antiquity. Such 

 of our readers as may be defirous of extended information 

 hereon, are referred to the differtations of fir William Jones 

 and Mr. Colebrooke ; on the Hindoo zodiac, in the 2d 

 and 9th volumes of the Afiatic Refearches ; and to the 

 Hindoo Pantheon. In both works, plates of the Hindoo 

 zodiac axe given from different authorities ; and in the 

 latter work feparate engravings alfo of the perfonified 

 planets. We will extract from it a fort of table, ftiewing 

 the Enghfti and Sanflirit names, and the vehicles afligned to 

 the feveral planets by the latter fabuhfts. 



Under the Sanllcrit names of the planets we have given 

 (hort articles defcriptive of their mythological and hiftorical 

 attributes and allufions. To them (Surya, Soma, &c.) 

 ■we therefore refer for farther particulars, and to the article 

 Vahan for an account of the vehicles afligned to them and 

 other mythological perfonages of Hindoo fable. 



ZODIACAL Light, a brightnefs refembling that of the 

 milky way, but lefs bright, and which is fometimes per- 

 ceived in the heavens, at certain times of the year, after 

 fun-fet, or before its rife. Some have fuppofed, that this 

 phenomenon is the fame with that which the ancients called 

 trabes, a term by which they denoted a meteor, or imprefliou 

 in the air like a beam. Thus Pliny (lib. ii.) fays, " emi- 

 cant trabes, quos docos vocant." The form of this hght 

 refembles that of a pyramid, lying lengthways in the zodiac, 

 within which its point and axis are always enclofed, its bafe 

 being towards the fun, and placed obhquely with refpeft to 

 the horizon. In the torrid zone, the zodiacal light is fre- 

 quently, or almoft conftantly, feen. At or near our latitude 

 it may be feen about the time of the equinoxes. The beft time 

 for feeing it is about the ift of March, at 7 o'clock in the 



evening, when the twilight is ending, and the equinoftial 

 point in the horizon. This phenomenon was firft difcovered 

 by Defcartes, and by Childrey about tlie year 1659. It 

 did not engage general attention till it was defcribed and 

 named by M. Caflini the elder, in 1683. It was after- 

 wards obferved by M. Fatio, in 1684, 1685, and 1 686, and 

 by M. Kirch and Eimmart, in 1688, 1689, 1691, 1693, 

 and 1694. See Mairan, Suite des Mem. de I'Acad. Roy ale 

 des Sciences, 1731, p. 3. 



In 1707, April 3, it was obferved by Mr. Derham in 

 Effex. It appeared in the weftern part of the heavens, 

 about a quarter of an hour after fun-fet, in the form of a 

 pyramid, perpendicular to the horizon. The bafij of this 

 pyramid he judged to be the fun. Its vertex reached 15° 

 or 20° above the horizon. It was throughout of a duflfy- 

 red colour, and at firft appeared pretty vivid and ftrong, 

 but fainteft at the top. It grew fainter by degrees, and 

 vanifhed about an hour after fun-fet. This folar atmo- 

 fphere has alfo been feen about the fun in a total folar 

 echpfe, a luminous ring appearing about the moon at the 

 time when the eclipfe was total. 



M. Fatio 



