NUM 
reduced ratio, out of which the train is compofed ; now we 
016 
fay that a of 365.24222 days is equal to the tropical 
2016 
1263 » of the fame ftand- 
period 2244 165 42™ 48, but that 
writers. 
The fame obfervation is equally true with refpeé to any 
other two cf the planets in the fyftem, whofe tropical ratio 
is known, provided the diminifhed part be made the denomina- 
tor of the fraGtion conftituied by the faid ratio. Toa want of 
attention to this fort of reduction of a tropical into a fynodic 
period, and vice ver/@, is owing the very great inaccuracy of 
ome inftruments of illuftration at prefent to be met with in 
the fhops ; particularly of that common orrery, known b 
the name of Ryley’s, in which the /ynodic revolutions of both 
Mercury and Venus are produced in periods which were in- 
tended, by the contriver, to be either fidereal or pe re and 
which are actually confidered to be fo by the inftrument 
makers. ‘Thus thofe periods which ought to be 119. 877 and 
583.923 days refpectively, are only about 864 and z1g! ; in 
the latter of which inftances the velocity of ‘the planet, in 
its orbit, is confiderably more than double its true velocity, 
and yet the error has never, that we know of, been detected 
by any one ; aconvincing proof this of the inattention, not 
only of thofe who conftruéted, but alfo of thofe.who have 
uted this little machine, to explain the nature of the planetary 
motions ! 
NUMBERING Rops. See NepEr’s Bon 
NUMBERS, in Biblical Hiftory, a canonical bod of the 
the five books called the Pentateuch, 
ey to Mofes the Jewi 
sypt 
for the {pace of 
which are fubjoined the laws given to them 
See Penta- 
39 years, whilft they were in the wildernefs. 
UMELLA, among the Romans, an engine of wood 
ufed in punifhing offenders, whofe necks and feet were made 
faft in 
NuMELLA was likewife ufed to denote a rope or cord made 
of raw ox-hides to bind beafts with. 
ANY, OF nmi in Antiquity, a feftival 
— : honou ae 
r di C 
cipation from 
For 7 he ceremonies of this folemnity, fee Potter, Arch. 
tom. 1 41 
NUMENTIA 
thofe who kept a feftival o 
MENIA. 
STE, Nepunasety a ee given to 
on every new moon. See Nu- 
NUMENIUS, in Biography, a Greek aed hae : cad 
Platonic ‘pai who is fu uppofed to have flou 
reign of the emperor Marcus Aurelius, was born .. "Ap amea 
in Syria. He was regarded as an oracle for wifdom, and is 
o 
NUM 
mentioned with refpe& both by Plotinus and Origen. Of 
the works which he wrote none are now extant, excepting 
fome fragments preferved nA apenas Theodoret, and Cle- 
mens cot gal inus. He is faid to have maintained that Plato 
borrowed from Mefes hae he advanced concerning God 
and the eee of the world. Moreri. Enfield’s Hift.. 
Phil. 
Numentvs, in Ornithology, a name ufed by authors for 
fi different {pecies of the Scolopax and Tantalus; which 
"NUMERAL Figures. The antiquity of thefein Eng- 
land has been fuppofed as high as the eleventh century, from 
an ancient date found at Colchefter, at firft thought to exprefs 
1090; the figure in the place of hundreds being taken for a 
cyp pher, by not ae tothe infide ftrokes, which were 
aia neatly defaced ; 
e 1490. See 
anf. N° 439 and 475. See Arasic Figures, and 
Numerar Letters, t sass Lae of the alphabet which 
are sce ufed for figures; as, I, V, X, L, C, D, M. 
NuMERAEL Charaéers. Sec CHARACTERS. 
NUMERALS, in a are thofe words which ex. 
prefs numbers ; as fix, ten, &c. e ORDINA 
NUMERATION, i in Arithnti oa art ial eftimating 
Or pronouncisg any number, or number 
The charaers, wher cares are or analy ex- 
preffed, Fr the nine following ones; 1, 2; 3) 45.55 
4, t being the law of the common entero 
that Ghee youare arrived at ten, you begin again, and repeat 
as before ; only expreffing the number of t 
Weigelius, indeed, pee how to a iio going 
beyond a quaternary ; 7. beginning to repeat at ea ch 
fourth. And Teas in what he calls his « binary arith- 
metic,’’ begins to ae at every fecond; only ufing two 
charaGters, 1 ando. But thefe are rather matters of curio- 
fity than ufe. 
hat the nine numerical notes may exprefs not only units 
= tens or decads, hundreds or centuries, a 
hey have a local value given them; fo as that, whew 
either alone, or when De in the right-hand clas they 
denote units; in the place, tens; in the third, hun- 
aud in the unt. hous nds. 
— o exprefs any written number, or os n the proper 
each char acter : han the pro number by 
- 
Ss 
" 
o 
ie) 
ww 
o 
te) 
a 
ae 
=a 
S 
5B 
i?) 
the ri o t-hand one by units. T hus will ie numeration be 
effe&te 
£. ore ‘The following numbers 2", 125,473" 6139578 
432,597, is thus exprefled or read: two trillions, one hundre 
lc -five thoufand four hundred feventy-three billows 
fix hundred ea thoufand five hundred feventy-eight mil. 
lions, pie hundred thirty-two thoufand five hundred and 
ninety-feve 
NUME RATOR, in {peaking of fraGions, fignifies the 
number which fhews how 7 of thofe parts, — the 
tege 
