Page:Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal Vol 1.djvu/458

408, a monk who rose to the throne after the murder of his benefactor Nicephorus Foca, was the first who ventured with dissimulated piety to put the effigy of Christ upon his coin. They were thence called. The modern Greeks erroneously ascribe them to Constantine the Great. It is a curious fact, that these, which are the most recent coins in the cabinet of the Asiatic Society, should be in the worst state of preservation.

—Since writing the above, the Society has become possessed of 250 Roman coins, purchased from an Armenian; as they were not found on the continent of India itself, I do not feel called upon to include them in the present list, although they will be of great use in forming the germs of a future cabinet. Some of them are in high preservation; they comprise

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and 20 others, more or less illegible. Should any of them turn out to be new or rare, I shall take occasion to notice them hereafter.

On the 5th of May, the expected transit of Mercury over the sun's disc, a phenomenon which occurs twice in an interval of about 12 years, invited all lovers of astronomy to be prepared at their telescopes. Unfortunately, in Calcutta, the day proved cloudy just at the time when the ingress took place, and, as the sun set before the egress, little advantage could be taken of the event in correcting the longitude; much less in attempting to furnish data for the calculation of the parallax of the sun or of the planet. From half past four to a quarter past five, there were intervals of sunshine sufficient to afford a transient view. Lieutenants Waugh and Rennie, Engineers, endeavoured with me to profit by these moments in taking the position of the planet on the sun's disc. We were permitted the use of a