ON THE EQUINOXES, , H? 



the fubjecl; of. this paper, they made a nearer*' approach to accuracy 

 than he had done, and mud therefore have ufed other obfervations 

 befides thofe which he has recorded. 



The Arabs adopted in its totality Ptolemy's theory of the motions 

 •of the planets; -which the Hindus have only in part But the Arabs 

 improved on his aftronomy by careful obfervations : a praife to which 

 the Hindus are not equally, entitled. Alea^tani difcovered the motion 

 of the Sun's apogee s and fufpefted from analogy a motion of the' ap- 

 fides of the minor planets*. The Hindus furmifed" the motion of the 

 apogee of the Sun, and nodes and apiides of the planets, from analogy 

 to the Moon's jf but were unable to verify the conjecture by obferva- 

 tion ; and have in facl merely affigned arbitrary numbers to the. fup- 

 pofed revolutions, to bring out the places right, (or as nearly fo as they 

 had determined them,) relatively to the origin of the ecliptick in their 

 fphere, and conformably to their affumption ©f a grand conjunction 

 of the planets, nodes, and ap fides in that point of the ecliptick at a 

 vaftly remote period. Bha'scara., when treating of the manner of ve- 

 rifying or of finding the number of revolutions of the planets, &c. in 

 a given period, teaches the mode of ©bferving the planetary motions^ 

 but confiders the life of man too (hort for obferving the motion of 

 . the apiides and nodes (the Moon's excepted): and certainly the re- 

 volutions afligned to them by him and other' Hindu ailronomers are 

 too few, and the motions too flow, (the quickefl not exceeding 7 de- 

 grees in 100000 years ;) to have been affumed on any other ground 

 but the arbitrary one juft now dated. The aftronomical indruments 

 employed by the Hindus, of which Bh ascara defcribes nine, includ- 

 ing one of his own invention, and comprehending the quadrant^ 

 femicircle and entire circle, befides the armillary fphere, horary ring, 



* M >nrucla. p. 349. 

 • + Bm'sCAaA in Vatan&hhqjbya* 



