254 Transactions of the Boy at Society of South Africa. 
The drawback to the purely theoretical data adopted in the previous 
computations is that it does not adequately represent the more modern 
observations of the moon during the period 1660 to 1900. In particular 
the adopted numerical values for the secular motion of both the perigee 
and node of the lunar orbit are much smaller than indicated by the obser- 
vations, and to represent these properly the numerical value of the secular 
motion of the perigee must be increased by fully 10", and that of the 
secular motion of the node by some 30" per century. Hence it is probable 
that the values for these elements as deduced, hitherto, from theory are not 
quite complete, owing to some small constituents having been overlooked. 
If the corrections indicated by the observations be applied, and the 
new data regarded as the theoretical data supplemented, it yields for the 
latitude of the point where the central path of the eclipse crosses 
the meridian of Babylon the amended values — 
Eclipse of -1235 
-1217 
-1210 
-1163 
-1135 
-1123 
Latitude =+30-56^ 
= 31-16 
= 10-20 
= 25-72 
= 43-31 
= 39-76 
Eclipse of - 1116 
-1069 
- 1062 
-1014 
- 956 
- 947 
Latitude =+23*76° 
- 16-97 
= 37-14 
= 34-40 
= 40-20 
= 45-66 
This change brings the path of the eclipse —1235 rather too far south of 
Babylon, but leaves the eclipse —1217 still satisfying the observation. 
But now the eclipse of —1014 is brought within the limits necessary to 
satisfy the record, the central path of the eclipse passing within two 
degrees to the north of Babylon. 
The date of this eclipse, —1014 July 11th, can be brought into accord 
with that recorded on the cuneiform Tablet if it be interpreted in the 
manner thought preferable by Mr. King, and a date assigned only from 
fifteen to thirty years earlier than the accession of the king Nabu-mukin- 
apli. By adopting, in accordance with the revised view of Winckler, 
Hommel, Delitzsch, and Peiser, a date of about —995 + 10 years for the 
accession of this king, the seventh year of Eulbar-shakin-shum would fall 
about —1014 + 10 years, and the day, July 11th, is a very probable equi- 
valent for the " twenty-sixth day of the month Sivan." Hence the date 
of this eclipse is in harmony with the record. 
The path of this eclipse is — 
East Longitude 38^ 40° 42° 44° 46° 48° 
IS ortli Latitude 37*2 30*3 35-4 34-5 33-6 32-8 
But the sun sets at Babylon according to this data more than half an 
hour before the time of maximum eclipse, so that it would only be visible 
as a very large partial eclipse, which would not correspond to the record. 
To bring the maximum eclipse into visibility at Babylon the adopted value 
