68o 
Analyses of Booh. [November, 
Darwinian controversy which, he considers, is approaching its 
final stage : — “ The opinion has already been advanced that St. 
Augustin, St. Thomas Aquinas, and Father Suarez were Evolu- 
tionists, and I should not be in the least surprised if before long 
the same discovery were made with regard to Knox, Calvin, and 
Wesley. Certainly a very good case could be made out for Dr. 
Watts ; a line in one of his hymns — 1 From change to change 
the creatures run ’ — is simply Evolution in a nutshell.” 
But let us not exult prematurely. Ignorance has learnt the 
art of organisation, and evil days may yet be in store not for 
Evolutionism alone, but for Biology in general, and for Science 
altogether. 
The Solution of the Pyramid Problem , or Pyramid Discoveries-, 
with a New Theory as to their Ancient Use. By Robert 
Ballard, M.I.C.E. New York : Wiley and Sons. 
Independently of the recent Egyptian troubles, the pyramids 
have of late years attracted a great and increasing amount of 
attention. Most of our readers will be more or less acquainted 
with the views of Mr. Piazzi Smyth, the Abbe Moigno, and 
others, who look upon the Great Pyramid as a divinely inspired 
record, embodying profound astronomical, mathematical, and 
meteorological truths. 
Mr. Ballard considers that the builders of the pyramids were 
by no means devoid of mathematical knowledge. These struc- 
tures he considers were not ereCted aimlessly, but to serve a very 
important practical purpose. In Egypt the annual overflow of 
the Nile is apt to render the boundaries of lands doubtful : hence 
rapid and efficient means of surveying were needed. These 
means were furnished by the pyramids, the respective positions 
of which are important. The Cheops stands at the acute angle 
of a right-angled triangle, of which base, perpendicular, and 
hypotenuse are to each other as 3, 4, and 5. Mycerinus is at 
the greater angle of this triangle. Cheops is situate at the 
acute angle of a right-angled triangle, of which base, perpen- 
dicular, and hypotenuse are to each other as 20, 21, and 29. He 
considers the Royal Babylonian cubit (=1*685 British feet), 
which seems to have been used by the builders of the Pyramids, 
as the most perfect ancient measure yet discovered : 77,760,000 
of these cubits are equal to the polar circumference of the 
earth. 
Our author does not, like Mr. Piazzi Smyth, find any striking 
difference between the pyramid of Cheops and the rest. “ That 
one particular pyramid should have anything to do with the past 
or the future of the lost ten tribes of Israel ” seems to him “ the 
