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A. M. W. DOWNING, M.A., D.SC, F.R.S., ON 



On p. 155, it is stated that " the year of confusion " (46 B.C.), when 

 the Julian calendar was established, consisted of 445 days ; this is 

 the statement given by Censorinus, who is followed by all German 

 writers, but Dion Cassius gives 422 days for the year of confusion, 

 and he is followed by all French writers. When the speaker last 

 investigated the subject, he had come to the conclusion that the 

 French were right : the Roman intercalary month was 22 or 23 days, 

 and we are told that three months were intercalated on this 

 occasion. It is nowhere stated that Julius Caesar specifically designed 

 that the new year should begin with a new moon ; actually the new 

 moon fell on January 2, 45 B.C. 



The Julian calendar had been abused as being inaccurate, but this 

 was undeserved. Julius Caesar's Egyptian advisers determined the 

 length of the year from observations of the heliacal rising of Sirius, 

 and this was found to recur at an interval of 365J days exactly. 

 The speaker felt that it had been a mistake at the time of the 

 reformation of the calendar by Pope Gregory to fix the vernal 

 equinox on March 21. Personally he felt very doubtful whether 

 the Metonic Cycle was ever inscribed in characters of gold upon the 

 walls of the Temple of Minerva. 



Mr. E. Pearce, M.P., said he felt much honoured in being 

 invited to take part in the discussion upon Dr. Downing's able 

 paper. His claim to speak on the subject lay in the fact that some 

 two years ago he had brought forward a Bill for the reform of 

 the calendar, based upon the fact that 52 weeks amounted exactly 

 to 364 days, and that Easter Sunday could be fixed to the same date 

 in all years ; at least in Christendom, if Christendom would agree to a 

 reasonable date. It would be of great advantage if this feast, 

 which has been the subject of so much controversy in the past, 

 could by common consent be fixed to one particular day. The 

 history of the controversy was full of interest, as they had learned from 

 the excellent paper which had been read before them that afternoon. 



But Easter was observed long before the Christian era ; its history 

 went back further than either Dr. Downing or Dr. Fotheringham 

 had indicated. Easter meant the dawn of the spring, and the 

 determination of the vernal equinox. Easter was the same word as 

 Esther or Ishtar, the great spring goddess of ancient Babylon ; it 

 was the same word as " East," the place of the sun-rising ; and the 

 word was similar in Hindu. The suggestion he had made for fixing 



