118 



SCIENCE. 



[Vol. V., No. 105. 



miliar with these units is affirmed ; but in these 

 two pages a clear understanding of them is 

 made well-nigh impossible. A single illus- 

 tration will serve to show the character of 

 man} 7 of these definitions. 



" The unit of tension is that tension (poten- 

 tial difference) between two points which re- 

 quires the expenditure of one unit of force 

 (1 dyne) to move 1 coulomb from one point 

 to the other by overcoming the electrical repul- 

 sion (Dim. C'G^S -2 ). 



" Technical unit, 1 volt = 10 8 (c. g. s.) 

 units." 



BARNARD'S PYRAMID OF GIZEH. 



Dr. Barnard tells us that Mr. Flinders 

 Petrie, after having published a book in 1874 

 to give ' irrefragable proof ' of the supernatural 

 metrology of the Great pyramid, in 1880 

 printed another in which he recants all that 

 doctrine. This surprising instance teaches us 

 that it is possible for a man to hold the views 

 of John Taylor and Piazzi Smyth, and yet be 

 capable of using his mind sanely upon the 

 subject. But Mr. Petrie had shown himself by 

 his ' Inductive metrology ' to be an adept in 

 the logic of induction ; and surely one would 

 expect the stud} 7 of logic, if it be of any use 

 at all, to save a man from such follies as this 

 metrological theory of the pyramid. 



The main fallacy of the advocates of it is 

 one which has been pointed out in C. S. Peirce's 

 ' Theory of probable inference ' as a violation 

 of the inductive rale that the characters for 

 which a lot is sampled ought to be predesig- 

 nate ; that is, settled upon before the exami- 

 nation of the sample. Given a collection of 

 numerical data, it is always possible, by twist- 

 ing them about, to find some recondite and 

 curious relationship between them ; for the 

 possibilities of such relationships are endless. 

 Mr. Pliny Earle Chase has convinced the world 

 of that, if of nothing else. 



Another thing which the pyramid-bitten 

 seem to overlook, is that an hypothesis ante- 

 cedently likely does not mean one which they 

 are antecedent!)* inclined to like, but one which 

 belongs to a class of explanations among which 

 the balance of positive evidence tends to show 

 that the true theory is to be looked for. 



Dr. Barnard treats the subject with a great 

 deal of pertinent wit ; he has drawn from the 

 stores of his learning for interesting informa- 



The imaginary metrological system of the Great pyramid 

 of Oizeh. By F. A. P. Barnard. New York, Wiley, 1884. 

 5+106 p. 8°. 



tion on every page ; and, w 7 hat is best, he has 

 estimated the strength of each argument with 

 unerring good sense. Perhaps he is a little 

 too indulgent to the idea that the vertical height 

 of the pyramid was intended to bear the same 

 ratio to the perimeter of the base that the radius 

 of a circle bears to its diameter. Fourteen 

 centuries after the building of the Great pyra- 

 mid under King Apophis of the seventeenth 

 dynast} 7 (Joseph's Pharaoh, as it is said), was 

 written the mathematical treatise of Ahmes, 

 which has been preserved to us. This work 

 virtu ally assumes 



7T = (|)4 = 3.16, 



and there is no good reason for supposing that 

 the pyramid-builder knew better. On the 

 contrary, Sir Henry James's idea is probably 

 correct, that the rule for the slope was, that at 

 the corners the rise should be nine on a base 

 of ten. 



The supposition that the inclination of the 

 entrance-passage was connected with a pole- 

 star, derives, it would appear, its chief strength 

 from its forming a part of Mr. Procter's ingen- 

 ious theory of the orientation of the pyramid, 

 which certainly has much to recommend it ; 

 yet the accuracy of orientation ma} 7 be merely 

 accidental, like that of the District of Colum- 

 bia. 



NOTES AND NEWS. 



Mr. H. H. Warner of Rochester, N.Y., offers two 

 prizes for the year 1885. First, two hundred dollars 

 for each and every discovery of a new comet made 

 from Feb. 1, 1835, to Feb. 1, 1886, subject to the fol- 

 lowing conditions: 1. It must be discovered in the 

 United States, Canada, Mexico, West Indies, South 

 America, Great Britain, or the Australian continent 

 and islands, either by the naked eye or telescope, and 

 it must be unexpected, except as to the comet of 1815, 

 which is expected to re-appear this year or next ; 2. 

 The discoverer must send a prepaid telegram imme- 

 diately to Dr. Lewis Swift, director, Warner observa- 

 tory, Rochester, N.Y., giving the time of the discovery, 

 the position and direction of motion, with sufficient 

 exactness, if possible, to enable at least one other 

 observer to find it ; 3. This intelligence must not be 

 communicated to any other party or parties, either 

 by letter, telegraph, or otherwise, until such time as 

 a telegraphic acknowledgment has been received by 

 the discoverer from Dr. Swift (great care should be 

 observed regarding this condition, as it is essential 

 to the proper transmission of the discovery, with the 

 name of the discoverer, to the various parts of the 

 world, which will be immediately made by Dr. Swift). 

 Discoverers in Great Britain, the Australian conti- 

 nent and islands, West Indies, and South America, 

 are absolved from the restriction in conditions 2 and 

 3. Second, a prize of two hundred dollars in gold to 



