293 H O R o 
at a quarter paft 18; that from the ift of June to the 
13th of July, it will be noon at 16. But the Italians were 
gradually adopting the more improved method which has 
io long been practifed in England, France, and the other 
enlightened countries of the north of Europe ; and a de¬ 
cree has been ilfued, in confequence of Bonaparte’s taking 
poffefiion of the papal dominions, that from and after the 
1 ft of October of the prefent year 1809, the divifion of 
time at Rome, and throughout the whole Roman territory, 
and all Italy, {hall be the fame as in France and other 
European countries. 
The only difference that at prefent fubfifts between Eng¬ 
land and France relative to the divifion of the day is, that 
with us we reckon by mean time : in France they ufe lblar 
time. Our clocks fometimes ftrike twelve when the fun 
is more than a quarter of an hour from the meridian: in 
France, the clocks ftrike twelve at the moment of noon. 
The French altronomers have lately propofed, that the 
aftronomical day ihould commence with the civil day at 
midnight. 
When the calendar w’as reformed in France, at the era 
of the republic, the day w r as to be divided into' 10 hours, 
the hour into 100 minutes, the minutes into 100 feconds. 
The two excellent watch-makers, Berthoud and Breguet, 
as well as others, made however remonftrances to the di¬ 
rectory, in the name of their Whole body, on the great 
inconveniences which would enfue from fuch a divifion 
of time, and the particular injury which the whole trade 
would fuffer in confequence. This had the effect of ob¬ 
taining from the government a refolution to poftpone this 
innovation. Some clocks were however, conltructed at 
Paris upon thefe divifions. There was one fet up in the 
middle of the facade of the Thuilleries, looking to the 
garden, which drew a vait many gazers, as being an ob¬ 
ject of ouriolity : Berthoud made a time-piece on a iimilar 
plan, which performs extremely well. 
Although the cuftoms and mariners of the original Clii- 
nefe befpeak great fimplicity, and betray much ignorance 
with refpeift to many European inventions and improve¬ 
ments ; yet their general or native knowledge is confefied- 
ly fuch, as to prove them always to have been a civilized 
and enlightened people. This people are Jaid to have pof- 
fciled, three hundred years before the birth of Chriit, a 
treatife of Clepfydras and Gnomons, the latter of which 
directs how to find the latitude of a place, and to draw a 
meridian line: a degree of knowledge not attained, at that 
period, even by the Romans, who, for a coniiderable time, 
had no other way of determining the meridian, or mid¬ 
day, at Rome, than that of oblerving when the fun came 
between the fenate-houle and the tribune; and who uled 
for many years a fun-dial calculated for another latitude, 
imagining that it was equally applicable to all places; an 
error into which fome of the Chinele have been ftnee ac- 
cufed of falling themfelves. Ingenious, however, as thefe 
people are, they do not feem to have any idea of the 
earth’s motion ; but imagine that the fun actually moves 
through the fixed ftars. Their day is divided, as by the 
ancient Egyptians, into twelve parts only, confiftirig each 
of two European hours ; the firft beginning at eleven at 
night, and ending at one. Thefe portions of time are 
meafured with tolerable accuracy, by means of a lighted 
taper made from the pith of a particular tree, of which 
the confumption by ignition is io regular, that, divided 
into twelve equal parts, each continues burning during 
the twelfth part of the twenty-four hours. The gradual 
motion of land, and the defeent of liquids, have been like- 
wife applied to the fame purpol’e. To announce the hour, 
even at prefent, in Pekin, they have no better method 
than that of linking with a mallet upon a large bell, a 
number of ftrokes correfponding to that of the hour, by 
a perfon who irult wait and watch the progrefs of time, 
as indicated by fome of the methods above delcribed. In 
this ftate they were found when conquered bv the Tartar 
tribes , and in it they leem ever fince to have continued. 
The inhabitants of Hindocftan commonly reckon and 
LOGY. 
divide time in the following manner: 60 til or unoopul (a 
fubdivilion of time, for which we have no relative term 
but thirds , as the feries next to feconds) are one bipul ; 60 
bipul (which correfponds progreflively only with our fe¬ 
conds or moments) one pul ; 60 pul (.correlative as above, 
in this fexagefimal l'cale with our minutes or primes ) one 
ghuree, and 60 ghuree (called alfo dund, which we may 
here tranllate hour) conftitute our twenty-four hours, or 
one whole day; divided into 4. fuhur din , diurnal watches ; 
and 4 puhur rat , nocturnal watches. 
During the equinoctial months, there are juft 30 ghurees 
in the day, and 30 alfo in the night; each ghuree pro¬ 
perly occupying a fpace, at all times, exactly equal to 24 
of our minutes ; becaufe 60 ghurees, of 24 Englifh mi¬ 
nutes each, are of courfe 24 Englifh hours of 60 Englifh 
minutes each. For nations under or near the equator, 
this horological arrangement will prove convenient 
enough, and may yet be adduced as one argument for 
afeertaining with more precifion the country whence the 
Hindoos originally came, provided they are, as is generally 
fuppofed, the inventors of the Jyftem under conlideration 
here. The farther we recede from the line, the more dif¬ 
ficult and troublefome will the prefent plan appear. And 
as in this country the artificial day commences with the 
dawn, and doles juft after l'un-fet, it becomes neceffary 
to make the puhurs, or watches, contract and expand oc- 
calionally, in proportion to the length of the day, and the 
confequent Ihortnefs of the night, by admitting a greater 
or fmaller number of ghurees into thefe grand diurnal and 
noflurnal divifions alternately, and according to, the fun’s 
progrefs to or from the tropics. The fummer folftitial 
day will, therefore, confift'of 34 ghurees, and the night 
of 26 only, or vice verfa : but, what is molt fihgular in the 
Indian hcVometty, their ghurees are unequally diftributed 
among the day and night watches; the former vary¬ 
ing from 6 to 9 in the latter, which are thus prevented 
from any definitive coincidence with our time, except 
about the equinoxial periods only, when one puhur nearly 
correfponds to 3 Englifh hours. We fay nearly , becaule 
even then the four middle watches have only 7 ghurees, 
or 2 hours 48 minutes of ours ; while the extremes have 
8 ghurees a-piece, or 24 Englifh minutes more than the 
others, and confequently agree with our 3 hours 12 mi¬ 
nutes ; while at other times the puhur is equal to no lei’s 
than 3 hours 36 minutes. 
The Indian liorometrical fyltem contrafted with our 
own, is lhown on the annexed Engraving, Plate I. fig. 1, 
upon a dial or horal diagram, calculated for one natural 
day of 24 hours, and adjufted to both the equinoctial and 
folftitial feafons, comprifing four months of the twelve, 
which may ferve as fome bafis or data for a general coin¬ 
cidence of the whole. Mr. Gilchriit, from whole paper 
in the Afiatic Refearches this is taken, fays he is fan- 
guine enough to hope that fome able artifts in Europe 
may yet be induced to co'nltruCt the dials of clocks, &c. 
for the Indian market, on the principles delineated here, 
and in Perfian figures alfo. But we rnuft now ’proceed 
to an explanation of the horal diagram, which is adapted 
to the meridian of Patna, the central part of the Benares 
zemindary, and the middle latitudes of Hindooftan. The 
two exterior rings of this circle contain the complete 24 
Englilh hours, noted by the Roman letters, I, II, III, IV, 
&c. and the minutes are marked in figures, 24, 48, 12, 
36, 60, agreeably to the fexagefimal fcale, whereon the 
equi-diltant interfeftions of this dial are founded ; the 
meridional femicircles of which reprefent our femidian 
watch-plates, and, for obvious reafons, with the modern 
horary repetition. The eight (4 diurnal and 4 noftur- 
nal) watches, or puhurs, from I. to IV. are diftinguilhed 
by Roman letters alfo, with the number of bells itruck 
at each in large figures, below the puhur letter to which 
they belong, and in the fame reiterated way; but thefe, 
inltead of ranging from the meridian, like the Englifti 
hours, commence with the equatorial and tropical lines al¬ 
ternately, as their fituations and fpaces mult regularly ac¬ 
cord 
