21 
be celebrated, and a day interposed for its celebration, after the five 
intercalated days, and before the day of the new year; and that the 
people should be reminded that they owed to the gods Euergetso 
this correction of the previous irregularity of the times.” This is 
virtually the Julian Year, introduced by Csesar at Borne from Alex¬ 
andria, which continued in use till the discovery that a quarter of a 
day was too large an allowance by more than twelve minutes, made 
the Grregorian correction necessary. The question whether the 
popular calendar in Eg 3 q)t, as distinguished from the sacerdotal, 
took account of the quarter day, must be considered as settled in 
the negative by this decree, for the preceding periods of its history. 
The cautious and indirect way in which the change is introduced— 
its connection with a religious and coiu’tly celebration, may be ac¬ 
counted for by the extreme sensitiveness of the common people to 
any intermeddling with the calendar, even for its improvement. 
There does not appear any reason for saying that the Egyptian 
priests derived their knowledge of the quarter day from the Grreeks. 
Uniform tradition ascribes it to the Egyptian priests, and there is 
no trace of it in the system of any of the Grreek independent states. 
May. 7.—Me. Dallas read a notice of some worked flints from 
India, presented to the Museum by Sir Charles LyeU. These flints 
were found near Jubbulpore in Central India, at a distance of 
between two and three miles from the nearest range of hills from 
which similar materials could be obtained. They were found by 
the late Lieut. Swiney, who sent nearly 1000 specimens to Sir Chas. 
Lyell, but out of these only 40 appear to have been useful flakes, the 
remainder consisting of nuclei or cores from which flakes had been 
struck off, or of irregular fragments removed in bringing the rough 
material into shape. The specimens presented to the Society in¬ 
cluded some good examples of cores, shoving distinctly the peculiar 
conchoidal fracture of the stone at the points where blows had been 
struck in order to detach the flakes. There is no means of judging 
of the antiquity of these objects, but Mr. Evans thinks that their 
fabricators may have been acquainted with the use of metal, as the 
minuteness and accuracv with which the flakes have been detached 
\j 
from some of the nuclei seem to indicate the emplo^unent of a 
pointed hammer. 
Me. Dallas also read a short note on the bones of Dinornis^ in 
the Society’s collection. 
