minute, was the time occupied by the sun's rising, measured at the Equinox, and could thus be recovered at any time. It was measured by the mass of water which flowed out of a certain vessel from the instant at which the upper edge of the sun appeared above the horizon to the moment at which his lower edge was exactly touching the horizon. The day consisted of 720 of these units. The unit of length was the ell, which was used in two forms, either as a single- or double-ell; subdivisions used were the foot - double-ell, the hand-width, and the finger-length. The unit of weight was the mine, also occurring as single-mine or double-mine. The derivation of units of weight from units of length, as in the modern case of grams and centimetres, was also known, but of course the water used was not distilled and was not weighed at 4° C. The speaker had, however, succeeded in discovering a measuring-scale on an ancient monument dating from the year 2500 B.C., which had enabled him to compare the Babylonian measures with those of our own time. It appeared from this that a hand-breadth = 99'4-99 6 mm. ; a double-ell 994-996 mm. ; and the foot = 331-332 mm. He had further discovered several stamped weights, and thus found that the double-mine = 982 4-9858 grams. The single-mine weighed half as much as the double-mine, but the gold-mine and silver-mine were equal to five-sixths of a single-mine. The royalmine was I per cent. heavier than the gold-mine, and was employed for the payment of tribute. The coinage was based upon the mine and its sexagesimal division. Dr. Lehmann remarked how surprising it is to find that the length of a seconds-pendulum at Babylon is 992'5 mm., and was inclined to advance the hypothesis that the Babylonian unit of length was derived from a seconds-pendulum, the foot being one-third the lengh of the pendulum. He next proceeded to give an account of the spread of the Babylonian mine, and of the Phoenician which was derived from it, as a unit of weight among the civilized nations of Europe. The discovery of an old Roman balance had enabled him to determine that the old Etrurian pound was equal in weight to the Babylonian mine. The Babylonian unit of weight is found not only in Italy and the Mediterranean generally, but also the old Dutch and French pounds and the Russian pood are equal in weight to the mine. The speaker considered it to be quite impossible that in all the above cases we are dealing with a chance correspondence between the several weights. In the discussion which ensued, objections were raised on several sides against the hypothesis that the ancient Babylonians had knowledge of the secondspendulum, which had subsequently been lost. On the other hand, it was pointed out by others that the ancients were not improbably acquainted with the plummet, and used it for squaring stones, &c.; and since, further, they employed the double-minute as unit of time, it is not impossible that they were acquainted with the seconds pendulum. The cause of their not having employed this instrument to supply a time-unit may perhaps be found in their ignorance of any means by which the pendulum could be kept in continuous and uniform motion. In conclusion, the speaker laid stress on the high state of culture which the Babylonians had attained three thousand years B.C., and expressed his regret that a complete blank exists with regard to everything of an earlier date than the cuneiform inscriptions. STOCKHOLM. 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