$36 
Kramp folicits the eftablifhment of an ob- 
fervatory at Cologn. The academy at 
Turin demands the re-eftablifhment of her 
own, and M. Henry has offered to take 
the direction of it. 
Canovai and Delricco have publifhed Ta- 
bles of Logarithms. The King of Etru- 
ria has come to a determination of em- 
ploying an aftronomer in his philofophical 
mufeum, where he has already a fine col- 
leétion of inftruments. M. Poczobut, of 
Vilna, in Lithuania, has, after a Jong in- 
terval, occafioned by the feveral revolu- 
tions in Poland, refumed his very ufeful 
obfervations. ; 
General Chabert, returned from Eng- 
land, after an abfence of ten years, has 
been eleéted to the Board of Longitude, 
where his labours in the {cience of geo- 
graphy give him juft claims; and his 
great age (feventy-eight years) does not 
prevent him from affifting at our fittings, 
and of being ufefui by his advice and ex- 
perience. 
Citizen Berthoud has executed for the 
obfervatory a pendulum worth one thou- 
fand crowns, the pivots of which turn on 
rubies ; we truft that this will, in every 
refpeét, be equal to that prefented by the 
Firft Conful to the obfervatory of Milan. 
Berthoud has increafed the number of his 
marine time-keepers. Citizen Pons, 
clock-maker, has placed, for experiments, 
‘In my obfervatory, a half-fecond pendu- 
lum, with a very excellent fcapement, 
which performs its motions with furprif- 
ing regularity. Leveque has publithed, 
in the fourth volume of the Memoirs of 
the Inftitute, a learned Memoir on the 
Longitude, and particularly on the charts 
of Maingon, for reducing the diftances of 
the moon obferved at fea. 
Citizen Richer has made a new trigo- 
Trometrical compafs for reducing the dif- 
tances of the moon from the ftars. He 
has invented feveral ingenious methods 
for dividing into unequal parts the rules 
which contain the diftance, the fum, and 
the difference of the heights. In my 
Abregé de Navigation, 1 gave a defcrip- 
tion of the inftrument which had obtained 
the prize in 17913 and, in the Connoi/- 
fance des Temps, tor the year 4, I gave a 
cemonftration of La Grange’s formula 
from which this inftrument: was made. 
M. Richer’s compafs is evidently an im- 
provement on this: the only difadvantage 
attending it is, that it cannot be made for 
lefs than fix hundred francs. 
Girard read to the Inttitute a confide- 
rable Memoir on the Egyptian Nilometre, 
Hiftory of Aftronomy for the Year 1802. 
[ May fi; 
in which he fhews, that Eratofthenes’s 
meafure of the earth was very exact. 
The Abbé Tefta has publifhed ar Rome 
a Differtation on the Zodiac found in 
Egypt, at Dendera, in which he under- 
takes to prove, that it cannot be traced 
farther back, ‘than three hundred years 
before the Chriftian era. In the Hiftory 
of Herodotus, tranflated by Larcher, in 
1802, there is an attack upon thofe who 
would carry back the epoch of the Egyp- 
tian zodiac fix thoufand years ; and his 
only reafon is, that it will make it exift 
two hundred and feventeen years before 
the creation, as if the time of creation was 
fufceptible of calculation*. He inferts an 
account given by M. Vifconti, who fays, 
that the firft fign of the grand zodiac is 
that of Leo; that the fcales, a fymbol of 
the equinox, was at his place, and that the 
refemblance of the greater part of the 
Greek figns goes to prove, that this zodi- 
ac was not executed at a more remote pe- 
riod, than that in which the Greeks ex- 
celled in the fcience of aflronomy ; he is 
almoft entirely convinced, that it was the 
work of the firft century in the Chriftian 
era. The exterior cornice bears a Greek 
infcription, which might decide the quef- 
tion; but. another infcription contains 
fome Roman names, and it announces a 
Czefar, which muft have been Auguftus 
or Tiberius. In fhort, M. Vifconti fays, 
that the architeéture of the Temple of 
Dendera, though in the Egyptian tafte, 
and although fome of their hieroglyphics 
are infcribed on the walls, neverthelefs ex- 
hibits unequivocal marks of the Grecian 
arts. For my part, I obferved in Denon’s 
engraving, that Cancer is drawn in the 
two lines, at the beginning of the de- 
fcending figns, and at the end of the 
afcending ones, which proves that the 
fummer iolftice was then about the middle 
of Cancer, and this will carry us back 
three thoufand years. But I have fhewn, 
in my aftronomy, that Eudoxus, who 
wrote three hundred and feventy years be- 
fore our era; and Aratus, who followed 
Eudoxus, defcribed the {phere, according 
to an ancient tradition, which goes back 
twelve or thirteen hundred years before the 
common era, and which evidently came 
from Egypt or India. Petau, Whifton, 
Freret, Legentil, approved of this date, 
and thus it is very reafonable that it 
fhould be found in the zodiac of Dendera; 
* On this fubje&, fee the learned Mr. | 
Henley’s paper in the Monthly Mag, vol, xiv. 
P+ 2.95, 300. 
it 
