The Placer herald., 1856-06-21
From the Boston Fress and Post.
BisseXtille or Lean Year.

by the term that the number 1856 can be
divided by without leaving a remainder;
for is contained Just AGA times in 1856,
Therefore, say they, the month of February
has 20 days; and with almost the same de-
gree of reason they also say therefore ladies
can with propriety make the first advance to
gentleman, and enjoy the privilege, for twelve
months, to select their mates or husbands
They further say that it is the wear of our
Lord eighteen hundred and fifty six, meaning
there by it is so many years exactly since the
advent or birth Of our Lord Jesus Christ
All these ideas may be correct. 1t is our
purpose to institute brief investigation of
these points; and like the noble Bereaus of
Scripture, learn whether they be so. And we
do this for the edifcaton and benefit of our
younger readers, presuming that their elders
need no enlightenment from our subject, we
will premise that the present method of com
putting time has not always been in vogue:
nor is it now universally in use
So long as twenty five centuries ago, or
nearly seven hundred years before Christ,
Nuna Pompilius, a celebrated philosopher
Of Rome, and who was likewise Roman
sovereign, improved the Roman ceendar or
t'illdHoN' liz III SL tidN vi every uIOHll WAS
called the celend; and from that the DAYS
were reckoned backwards. The first day of
May for instance, being the caend of Nav;
the thirthieth day of April was styled the
day before the caend of Nav; the
twenty-ninth day was called the second
day before the calend, and so on to the egh-
teenth day before The eighteenth was nam
ed the ides; and the ninth day preceding the
ides was called the nones which means,
in the Latin, the ninth. Numa reckoned
thirty-one days each to March, May, July,
and October, and to the balance twentv-nine
each, except to February, which had % days,
and the Macedonian month, which was inter
coated every two years with 1929 This
arrangement rather dislocaed the ides and
the nones, and made sad work in the monthly
and daily calculations.
Well, during the reign of julius Caesar,
that accomplished scholar and general under
took to regulate the calendar; for the reckon
ING had become so abtruse that the year Sc
B. G. was sgnalised as ''the year of confusion;"
and it was made to consist af 455 DAYS to
equalize matters. He was aided by Sosigenes
an Egyptian mathematician of celebrity
1t was at this time, As b. c., that the addi-
tional dav was introduced to every fourth
year, with out exception. Their year com
menced with March, and ended with February
which latter month anciently contained %
days three years out of four, and 80 days
every fourth year. As amended it was known
as the Julian calendar
From that period every fourth year con
sisted Of 3G6 days, and every other year
of 3G5. About that date, too, their
fifth month, then known by the name
of Quintlis or Fifth, was called July, in honor
of Ju. Caesar. And in the reign of Augustus
Caesar, the sixth month, then called Saxtiis
or Sixth, and containing only thirty days,
while July containing thirty-one, was first
named August Poor February, which was
made up Of the odds and ends of time and
used to taper off the tail end of the year. as
well as already deficient in its numerical
complement was stripped Of a day to make
the month Of Augustus equal in length to
that of julius. "To him that hath shall be
given, &C." 1t was robbing Peter to pay
Paul.
Now, for the word bissextile. We have
seen that the C;esarean operation was literally
performed on the cold, shivcring and destitute
month of February, the Procrusean period
Of the Roman year. 1t is said that the oath
day of that month was the sixth or sextle's
day from the calend of March, and that here
the additional day was ntercalated or inter
posed, thereby virtually making both the
twenty fourth and the twenty fifth
days the sixth day from the celend of March.
And as the word bis means twice, in Latin,
and sextiles means sixth, we hence have bis
seXtile or, the sixth day preceding the calend
named or reckoned twice in succession. Thus
the oath and 25th February are in one sense
deemed only one day, viz: sexties or the sixth
Of the calend of March TO Illustrate this
point in another way, August was once called
sextilles or the sixth month Then, was
February the bis-sextile's, twice sx) or the
twelfth month. AS the operation was per-
formed on February, quite as good reason APP
pears for thus naming the leap year from this
circumstance Further, as day was taken
from one month to increase another, and as
a rib was abstracted from man originally,
to insert in the framework of woman; if, on
the first we predicate right every fourth
year to make restitution of that borrowed
day, why are not the ladies entitled to the
exercise of a similar right, in the other case,
once in four years at least, to volunteer to
man the restitution of that borrowed rib, by
presenting themselves person as helpmates.
Thus we perceive that an appeal to analogy
rather sustains the interference drawn by many
as to the nature of leap year. But when we
come to examine 1856, it labors under the
suspicion of not accurately counting the
number of years since the advent or birth of
Christ; and therefore, can scarcely be consid-
cred, par excellence, the amos Domini, in
Latin, or year of our Lord in English One
of the Christian fathers, Tertullian, LIE Clerc
and Cardinal Norris, were satisfied that Christ
was crucifed in year 90 Archbishop Usher
the accurate and standard chronologist, con