the correctness of their ayanamsam. As for the other two gentlemen, I can't suppose for a moment that they consider their ayanamsam as resting on a satisfactory basis. Now, I have to remark here

(1) That the Dhruva Nadi contains a correct record of the lives of men.

(2) That it gives the nirayanasphutam of all the planets at the moment of birth of each individual.

Now, as a horoscope constructed with the help of the correct modern tables contains the only error already pointed out, viz.: that resulting from an incorrect ayanamsam, and no other, my attempt to find out my life in the said dhruva nadi led me to a portion of the work which contained the lives of five or six persons, of which mine was one. I went carefully over all of them, and with little or no difficulty found out mine. I found the Nirayanasphutam of all the planets at the moment of my birth given in it; and as the sayanasphutam of the same had been calculated correctly with the help of modern tables, by subtracting the former sphutam of the sun from its latter sphutam I arrived at a certain ayanamsam; and what was my surprise when I discovered that the ayanamsam thus obtained from the two sphutams of the moon, Mars, Mercury, Jupiter, Venus, Saturn, and the moon's nodes was identically the same! This led me to suspect that this must be the correct ayanamsam. This suspicion was confirmed when I beforehand calculated with the help of this ayanamsam and of the correct modern tables the nirayana-sphutam of the planets in several cases, and found out on opening the Dhruva Nadi that the same sphutams were given in it! To crown all, the lives recorded in the nadi were found to be correct to even the minutest details.

All this, then, points to a period in the annals of India's greatness when Jothisha Sastra (astronomy and astrology) was cultivated to a degree of perfection. What a change do we see now! The science throve well in the Indian soil, under the warm sunshine of the Indian rulers; it began to lose its luxuriance under the cold, piercing blast of Afghan invaders; and its ruin is now being completed under the colder blast of our Anglo-Saxon rulers; and what is most to be deplored is that this ruin is being brought about through India's own children!

Bode's discovery of the law of planetary distances, though empirical in its nature, was accepted because, on application, proved to be correct. I crave of the astronomers of the west and the east, for a similar indulgence to my discovery of the ayanamsam, whose correctness may easily be tested. I think the indulgence ought to be granted the more readily, seeing that so many vain attempts have been made by astronomers for several centuries to arrive at anything like a satisfactory solution of one of the most important problems of the science, viz.: the discovery of the correct ayanamsam; lo! the key was after all found stuck to the side of the box itself!!

TRIPLICANE, January 23, 1883.

P. S.-I showed my paper to Brahma Sree Sundareswara Srouthy, who is equally versed in the eastern and western systems of astronomy, and who was assisting the late Mr. C. Ragoonathachariar for four years. He admitted (1) the necessity that existed for the discovery of the correct ayanamsam; (2) the incorrectness of the ayanamsam adopted by the several almanac publishers, and (3) the probability of the ayanamsam discovered by me being the correct one.

*

He further remarked that in Southern India, at least, no almanac publisher would now boldly introduce the correct ayanamsam in the almanac, owing to the difficulty of over

* I may here add that Sundareswara Srouthy was himself of great help to me in the discovery of the correct ayanamsam.

Editor's Note.-A few of our European brother theosophists are invited to test the assertion of our Brother Chidambaram Iyer, by furnishing to him the necessary information from their horoscopes.

coming the prejudices of the people; for the correction would first be felt in the case of the sun, as it will affect the Samkramana Punyakala.

As the present rulers of British India will take no interest in the matter, several of my friends are of opinion that the work should be undertaken by the enlightened native princes. In this view I perfectly concur; for here is what Bhagavan Garga says on the subject:

(1) As the night is without a lamp, and the sky without the sun, so is a prince without an astronomer, and he gropes his way in the dark.

(2) If there should be no astronomer, the Muhoorthas, the Thithees, the Nakshatras, It therefore behooves a prince to the ruthoos, the ayanas and the like will go wrong. find out a learned astronomer.

(3) He that loves victory, fame, wealth, enjoyment and renown, ought not to live in a country devoid of a good astronomer.

(4) He that knows the hora, the ganitha and the samhitha sastras deserves to be supported by the prince who loves victory.

(5) That service which an astronomer can render to a prince cannot be effected by thousand elephants and by four thousand horses.

(6) That good which an astronomer can do to a prince will not be done to him by his father, mother, relations and friends.

Therefore their highnesses, the Maha Rajas of Travancore and Mysore, for instance, will do well to convene meetings for the purpose of ascertaining the correct ayanamsa, and of testing the correctness of my discovery. They will confer an invaluable benefit on the country by directing their court astronomers and almanac publishers to introduce the ayanamsa correction in their almanacs. This will pave the way for the eventual adoption of the correction in the almanacs published in British India.

In connection with this subject I need hardly impress on the mind of these and other native princes of India the importance of having an observatory in the capital of each prince and presided over by native astronomers learned in the systems of eastern and western astronomy and in the Dhurmasastras, and trained in the Madras Observatory.

THE HINDU ZODIAC.

In the November, 1881, issue of the 'Theosophist,' Mr. Subba Row stated that the zodiac of the Hindus was not fixed owing to the precession of the equinoxes, "as may be easily seen from their works on astronomy and from the almanacs published by the Hindu astronomers." That these works and publications did not support Mr. Subba Row's If Mr. Subba Row wants more proofs, I shall give statements was clearly proved by me. him a score more.

can be taken to be correct.

"

Mr. Subba Row now says that only if I succeed in showing (this, of course, I can do at any time, because I know where the books are to be found) "from the Nadigrandhams that astrological calculations are correct only when Nirayana Sphutam is used, then his (my) statement that a fixed zodiac should be (and not is?) the basis of our calculations This is curious. Independently of the correctness of nadigrandhams, the question was, not as Mr. Subba Row now says, whether Nirayana Sphutam is preferable to Sayana Sphutam (this is another question altogether), but whether Hindu astronomers and astrologers adopted and are still adopting the former as I stated, or the latter as Mr. Subba Row thought.

Besides, I thould like to know whether Mr. Subba Row means to state that Sayana calculations give, in his experience, more correct results.

I never meant to deny the esoteric meanings he attaches to the names of the zodiacal signs. Here Mr. Subba Row is in his element, and it is a question with which I have: nothing to do. Yours obediently,

MYLAPORE, April 5, 1883.

N. CHIDAMBARAM IYER, F. T. S.

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NOTES.

Professor C. Piazzi Smyth writes that he is bringing out a pamphlet for an Australian, entitled "Why we do not Adopt the French Metric System." The "why" is founded largely on Pyramid teaching, and the "we" are Anglo-Saxons everywhere. At the end of the pamphlet he is introducing an appendix of eight pages, descriptive of "The International Institute for Preserving and Perfecting Weights and Measures," its labors, publications and membership. We sincerely thank Professor Smyth for this addition to his many acts of kindness.

We have received from Mr. George Kellogg a copy of The Students' Journal, a phonographic paper published by Andrew Graham, 744 Broadway, New York, containing an admirable: article on Anglo-Saxon weights and measures.

As the Magazine is closing we have received from Mr. J. N. Wing, secretary of the New York and New Jersey branch of

the International Institute, a copy of the American Druggist, containing an editorial upon the recent paper of Professor Oscar Oldberg in the Pharmacist. We consider this of such importance that we hold the Magazine to present both the article of Professor Oldberg and the editorial upon it to our members, and beg them to give it as wide a circulation as possible in the newspapers of their towns.

The paper by Professor Oldberg on page 222, is unquestionably the most important contribution to the literature of the metric system that has appeared for a long time in this country. The facts referred to, the position held by the writer and his reputation as the most earnest advocate, heretofore, for the introduction of this system of weights and measures into practical pharmacy, cannot fail to put a stop, for some time at least, to any further increase in the employment of this system outside of laboratory work.

We venture to predict, also, that Professor Oldberg makes so good an argument for the relative perfection of the system now generally in use in the United States, that no one will take the trouble to modify it even so slightly as he suggests, to make it conform in any way to metric standards. The general opinion will be that the variation would, for all general purposes, be so slight that it will be better to let well enough alone than to run the risk of confusion.

When this journal was changed from a quarterly to a monthly issue in January, 1876, we announced our intention to express quantities, as far as practicable, in the terms of the metric system, and we have since, on numerous occasions, published extended tables and comments which were calculated to aid the comparison of one system of measurement with the other. After ten years of hopeful effort toward the introduction of the metric system, we fail to appreciate any decided increase of feeling in its favor among cur readers, and it becomes a question of some importance whether, for most purposes, the end will justify the trouble, or, to use an old saying, "whether the game is worth the candle." Within the ten years past " metric bureaus" have been established and gone out of existence. Societies have resolved to adopt the metric system and still continue to use the one left to us by our fathers; hundreds of papers and discussions have been published, and a few physicians have, taken the trouble to learn the posology of their remedies so that they could use the metric system with some facility. Not one medical school in the country has taught the metric doses of medicine in a manner to render students as familiar with them as they are with the ones generally used; and, on the other hand, the liability to mistakes resulting from the use of the system when the prescriber and dispenser were not equally familiar with the metric notation, has had several lamentable illustrations.

As an example of the practical working of many efforts to render the metric system popular among physicians, we will mention the experience of the largest county medical society in the United States. Largely through the influence of one of its members, a committee of three was appointed to report upon the subject, and in time the result of its labor appeared at length and in various forms. An investigation of the personel of the committee showed that its prime mover and chairman was not actively engaged in practice, and rarely had occasion to write a prescription. Another member, upon being questioned with regard to his own practice in using the system, said he did use it occasionally, but not often; and the third, while advocating its use by others, never used it himself.

We shall feel reasonably sure that the great majority of our readers will not be grieved if, in the future, we express quantities in grains, drachms and ounces, and we shall not