The daily gazette., 1878-01-29
n he Longest Year.

''s1ha longest year on record was the
year AZ Is. O. 1t was 445-IonRer bv
eighty days than any other. How this
year happened to be SO long IL is our p,m-
pose TO show.
Every natural year is the same length,
v v. Sd5 days, hours, 40 minutes; that IA
In so mary days, hours and minutes, the
earth completes her revolution around
the sun. IL Is obvious that the more
nearly, our calendars coincide with this
period, the less will be our danger of
falling into confusion.
Now, there Is another important natrr-
al cycle, sure to be observed and measur-
ed ut an early period of mans history,
VIZ, the lunar month,
But a lunar month Is not a common
measure Of solar year. Twelve lunar
months amount to about 354 days-near
enough % lead people TO adopt twelve
lunar months ~ their year, but not near
enough " prevent great confusion aris- |
Ing In thh lapse Of time, where II Is SO
Numa, one of the kings Of Rome, made
the year of twelve lnnar months. To this |
ne added one day, because an odd num- |
ber, 365, was considered more lucky than
the even number, 354. TO bring matters
straight with the solar year, he 'interca-
lated an extra month every other year,
of % and 23 days alternately. This was
called Meais intercddris or Ndceio,l,css,
and II wins inserted between the 23d and
24th days Of February, This gave nm av-
erage Of 1858 days and fraction, which
brought humans year very close to the
which this was done did not work well.
The college OF priests, to whose tender
| mercies the year was intrusted, played
sad pranks with it. Sometimes they sus-
pended he Interpolation of the meals
Mucedoydcus to oblige their friends Even
so great q man as Cicero used all his
powers pf persuasion to get the month
omitted In order that he might secure
an Iearlier return to Rome, where he
longed 10 enjoy repose after his. Ia
bors. 80 ftf ~ tt 4
| By means of the tinwarrantable hber-
ties confusion reigned triumphant in the
almanac The midsummer sun shone
brightly in the autumn month, and when
the caletdar led one to expect daffodils,
an artic temperature prevailed H.. 4 I
AT length the man appeared who was
to put an end to this disorder, Que sum-
mer, when julius Caesar was not fighting
battles, he turned his ever active and
powerful mind towards the reform of the
calendht He summoned to his aid an
eminent astronomer, named Sosigenes,
an Alexandrian, by whose assistance he
divided the year into twelve artificial
months. some containing 30, Others 81
days; ard to rectify the5 hours, 48 min
utes, 4gseconds, a day was ordered to be
intercahted every fourth year between
the 23d ahd oath Of February. AS the
sixth Of the calends Of March fell on the
oath of February, the intercalary day
was considered a double sixth. whence
leap year got the name of bissextile
Now, to bring matters straight, Julius
Cesar was obliged to make the year AZ
b. 9. the longest on record. Ithappened
70 be an interealary year in which a
thirteeHth month (of % days. fell to its
lot.
Besides this, Caesar put in two extra
ordinary months, one of 80 days. the
other df "a days, between the months
of Novtmaer and December. This 0,1nsis
Inttrdbits consequently contained 355t23t
3jt3ttlAys, AS days in all, and was surely
the longest year ever known. Men i'm
patient TO return to Rome would surely
blame the meddlesome leisure of the
Igreat. soldier. But no reforms are o b.
ltained without some inconvenience
The long year was well called anus con-
Ifision tIltimus-the last year ofconfnsion,
and the year that followed might well be
known as the Julian year, in honor of its
celebrated originator
The Julian year, which still continue
in use (Dne of its months commemorating
its founders nancy did not perfectly
harmoHize with the solar year. 1t would
have done so had the solar year been 365
Idays, q hours, but we have seen that an.
lnuai measure falls short Of it by twelve
minutes, ten seconds and a fraction. II
remained flor a spiritual Caesar to bring
the almanac and the sun closer into tune
Gregory XIII found that the spring
equinox, which should have been on the
2lst of March, zen onthe 10th. He there
fore, with the advice and consent OF
scientific men, ordered the 4th of Octo-
Der to be- called the, 18th, thus casting
ont ten whole days. Moreover, to pre-.
went a recurrence of this disagreement
between the civil and solar year, II was
ordained that every Tooth year, should
mot be q leap year, except the 400th. BY
this arrangement II IL supposed the differ
ence between the calander and solar yeal
viii not amount to day in five thousand
| This useful reform of Pope Gregory's
was adopted at once in every Roman
Catholic country, but not in England un
til 1852, when eleven days were struck
out of the month of September, which
contained that year only nineteendays
A bill had been read in the House OF
Lords q first and second time, in Queer
Elizabeth's reign, empowering her t6
alter and new make calender used il
1 .
The astronomers of Pope Gregory, i
has been seen, decided that every hun
dredth year, except the fourth, shonld
not be O leap year. This plan has beer
adopted here, and will actin future this
The years 1900, 21O0, 1900, 1900, 2500, 2600
200, 300, &c, will not be considered
leap years but the years 2200, 2400, $500
300, &c, will be leap year.
Probably this Julian institution, thu
amended and improved, will endure nn
til time shall be no more. There may b.
; attemp pt to change 1t, as was the case II
the French Reign of Terror, but the.
Twill probably be as unsuccessful as thai
The YEAR was then made to begin at tn
true autumnal equinox it was made T.
have twelve months of thirty days, an
five additional days were added at tn
end, used as festivals, and called sans
culottides l" each month has three dt
cades; the old week and its Sabbath wer
blotted out, and SO forth /; but this al
tempt to disturb the old order of thing
u n fn;I,,ra N fxpalxa wars, time