Minutes of Proceedings. 
xxvii 
" A Note on the Heije Eibib, or Stone Mound of Namaqualand," by 
L. Peringuey. 
The name Heije Eibib is usually given to artificial mounds of stone 
occurring in certain places in Namaqualand and elsewhere, the formation 
of which is ascribed to the Hottentots, who, whenever passing the spot, 
add a stone to the cairn, taking great care, however, that in so doing their 
shadow be not projected on the mound. But so far there was nothing to 
prove that these cairns were really a kind of sepulture. Lately, however, 
one such mound was opened and it was found that the accumulation 
of stones covered parts of a body; the skull is, to all appearances, that 
of a Bush. But Eev. Kling informs the writer that there are two kinds 
of Heije Eibib. The one opened is known as Heije Eibib Garedje, and 
would be the grave of a Bush witch-doctor, erected by his people. But it 
is not yet proved that the Hottentot's Heije Eibib is a grave. 
On the Secular Acceleration of the Orbital Motion of the Moon," by 
E. Nevill. 
The paper begins with a critical examination of the records of the 
principal ancient eclipses of the sun mentioned as being total, or very 
nearly total, by different Assyrian, Babylonian, Grecian, and Chinese 
records. The exact conditions of each eclipse have been calculated from 
the best modern theoretical data according to Hansen's method of compu- 
tation. As a result it is shown that with our present knowledge it is not 
possible by any system of data consistent with the modern observations of 
the sun and moon to bring all the principal eclipses recorded by ancient 
authorities as having been total into accord with the tables. The second 
portion of the paper assumes the existence of a secular acceleration in the 
motion of the earth around the sun, and proceeds to consider what might 
be the origin, and to what degree the existence of this cause will modify 
the motion of the different members of the solar system, and how far the 
deduced consequences are in harmony with observation. It is shown 
that the case of the terrestrial tidal effect due to the action of the 
sun and moon does not form a conservative system and that the 
principle of conservation of angular momentum does not hold for 
any non-conservative system of forces. No other origin for a secular 
acceleration being apparent, the great difficulty in reconciling the conse- 
quences of such a secular acceleration with the known motion of the sun 
and moon renders it preferable to look to one of the other permissible 
causes as a means of reconciling the existing theories of the sun and moon 
with the records of the ancient eclipses of the sun and moon. 
" Some Observations concerning the Transmission of East Coast 
Fever by Ticks," by A. Theiler. 
In the experiments it has been proved : — 
(1) That brown tick imago which as larvae had become infected with 
