Page:Willich, A. F. M. - The Domestic Encyclopædia (Vol. 3, 1802).djvu/61

Rh such as the Julian, Gregorian, and the new French kalendar.

The Julian kalendar received its name from, the reformer of the old Roman kalendar, and is divided into periods comprising four years; the first three of which are called common, and consist of 365 days; the fourth has received the appellation of bissextile, or leap-year, and contains 366 days, on account of the six hours, which in the space of four years form a day, within a few minutes, and thus, in the course of 134 years, render it necessary to subtract an intercalary day.

For this reason, Pope XIII. with the advice of able mathematicians, appointed that the hundredth year of each century should have no bissextile, excepting in every fourth century, on account of the deficiency of eleven minutes in the six hours of which a bissextile consists.

This reformation, or the new style, as it is now termed, commenced on the 4th of October, 1582, when ten days were omitted in the old kalendar; but that change was not introduced into Britain till it was enacted by the 24th II. c. 23, that the Gregorian computation should be adopted; and it accordingly took place in the year 1752.

The kalendar at present used by the French, was invented by, during the late Revolution. It commences with the autumnal equinox, and is divided into twelve months, each of which contains 30 days, and three decades, or periods of ten days: thus, a decade is a day of rest, similar to our Sunday. To the 12th month, or Fructidor, are added five supernumerary days, called sanculottides: and that the reader may form some idea of the new French kalendar, we have annexed the following tables, in which the new and old methods of computation are placed in parallel lines:

B. Signifies Bissextile, or Leap Year;—S. Sextile, or French Leap Year. By