102 H. C. RUSSELL. 
his conclusions. He refers to the moon as the “exciting cause,” 
and he presumably has in his mind therefore the Metonic cycle 
of two hundred and thirty-five lunations, which gives a period of 
nineteen years so exactly, that an average error of even a few 
months is out of the question. 
This Metonic cycle of nineteen years has been known to the 
astronomers of the civilized world for more than 2000 years. 
Greeks, Romans, Egyptians, all were acquainted with its undoubted 
accuracy. Surely, if this same cycle obtained as regards the 
annual overflow of the Nile, it would have been known to every 
Fellah in Egypt for the last 2,000 years. Such knowledge, once 
gained, could never be lost. The prosperity or adversity of the 
whole country depended upor. this yearly flood ; its approach was 
heralded to an expectant populace by swift messengers; its absence 
spread misery throughout the land. JI conclude that it 1s 
highly improbable that a nineteen years’ cycle has existed for 
the Nile-flood within historic times. 
It is impossible to deal seriously with the evidence which Mr. 
‘Russell draws from Biblical meteorology. The dates given in the 
margins of some English bibles are foreign to the text, and have 
no scientific value. Supposing the dates are trustworthy which 
Mr. Russell gives from Greek and Roman history, they frequently 
seem to miss his datum line by from one to four years, and Mr. 
Russell’s cycle is so full of different droughts that it seems easier 
to hit a drought somewhere than to miss altogether. He actually 
says in one place “It is worth mentioning that in India from 503 
B.C. to 443 B.C. there was great drought and pestilence, and 
these dates are in the D series.” It seems to me that a continu 
ous sixty years’ drought would completely efface three cycles and 
part of a fourth. 
The picturesque description which is given of the peculiarities 
of a drought in New South Wales is no doubt quite accurate ; but 
it does not help the argument, and I can only conclude by saying 
that Mr. Russell has produced no satisfactory evidence that 4 
‘nineteen years’ cycle exists in the weather of the world. Not 
