258 Proceedings of the Royal Society 
amount to 9131 pyramidal inches, or 9140 British inches — the 
British inch being held, as already stated, to be 1000th less than 
the pyramidal inch. Was, however, the “ Sacred Cubit” — upon 
whose alleged length of 25 “ pyramidal” inches this idea is en- 
tirely built — really a measure of this length ? In this matter — the 
most important and vital of all for his whole linear hypothesis — 
Professor Smyth seems to have fallen into an error which upsets 
all the calculations and inferences founded by him upon it. 
Sir Isaac Newton, in his remarkable “ Dissertation upon the 
Sacred Cubit of the Jews,” long ago came to the conclusion that 
it measured 24 82 British inches. In this way it was one-fifth 
longer than the cubit of Memphis, viz., 20*7 inches, as previously 
deduced by him from Greaves’ measurements of the King’s 
Chamber and other parts of the interior of the Great Pyramid. 
Before drawing his final inference as to the Sacred Cubit being 
24*82 inches, and as so many steps conducting to that inference, 
Sir Isaac shows that the Sacred Cubit was some measurement inter- 
mediate between a long and moderate human step or pace, between 
the third of the length of the body of a tall and short man, &c., 
&c. Professor Smyth has collected eight of the measurements thus 
adduced by Newton as “ methods of approach” to circumscribe the 
length of the Sacred Cubit ; and adding to these data Sir Isaac’s 
deduction of the actual length of the Sacred Cubit as a ninth 
quantity, he enters the whole nine in a table as follows : — 
Professor Smyth’s Table of Newton’s Inquiry regarding the Sacred 
Cubit. 
First, between 23*28 
Second, „ 23 ‘3 
Third, „ 24'80 
Fourth, „ 24*91 
And Fifth, somewhere near 24*82. 
“ The mean of all which numbers ” (Professor Smyth remarks) 
“ amounts to 25*07 British inches. The Sacred Cubit, then, of 
the Hebrews” (he adds) “ in the time of Moses — according to Sir 
Isaac Newton — was equal to 25*07 British inches, with a probable 
error of *1.” 
But — <! according to Sir Isaac Newton” — the Sacred Cubit of the 
and 27*94 British inches. 
27*9 
25*02 „ 
25*68 
