788 NATURE MAY 8, 1937

Obituary Notices

Dr. J. K. Fotheringham, F.B.A. make a valuable correction to the work of Ginzel, OHN KNIGHT FOTHERINGHAM, who died on Nevill and Newcomb on eclipse calculations. He J December 12 of last , was the greatest was made assistant at the Observatory at Oxford in authority of his on ancient . The 1918. About 1910 he became interested in Babylonian name Fotheringham is derived from the Manor and , and I then made his acquaintance; from Castle of Fotheringay, held in the twelfth that time until his death we collaborated constantly. by the royal family of Scotland as part of the Honour In the meantime, he had been applying astronomy of Huntingdon in Northamptonshire. Mr. Walter de to Greek chronology, and had produced fundamental Fodringaye was one of the executors of Devorgilla, results. He now began to apply Babylonian Lady of the Manor and wife of John de Baliol in astronomy to still earlier chronology and attained 1289, and was appointed by her as the first principal the undisputed position of the greatest living of Baliol (Balliol) College, Oxford. By their close authority in these matters. The University of connexion with the House of Baliol, some of the Oxford, therefore, created for him a post as reader Fotheringay family settled in Scotland at the end in ancient astronomy and chronology in 1925 and of the thirteenth century and the name was changed he was elected to the British Academy in 1932. to Fotheringham. One William Fodringhay had a It will be seen that the mental range of this scholar charter from David II of lands in Aberdeen and probably exceeded that of any one of his contem• Banff. In 1296 Hugh de Foderingaye of Perthshire poraries in any land. An excellent classical scholar, and Roger, vicar of Kilmuir in Ross-shire, did a man of wide reading in modern , an homage to Edward I. Duncan, Bishop of Dunkeld, astronomer of great originality, a brilliant mathe• granted Fordell, County Perth, to Walter de Fother• matician, and a specialh;t in ancient history-these ingham in 1340. are his attributes. Moreover, he was regarded as an The family has, therefore, a long Scottish ancestry. authority on Presbyterian Church policy and was a They became Presbyterians at the Reformation. Dr. devoted layman and elder. J. K. Fotheringham's father was born at Dunbarrow The first contribution of Fotheringham to learning Bridge, and was minister of Glanton Presbyterian was an edition of the text of Jerome's version of the Church, Northumberland, in 1859- 65, and of Totten• " of Eusebius" (1905). The Bodleian MS. ham Presbyterian Church, Middlesex, in 1865-1905; together with two others (Undine and Paris) is he was moderator of the Presbyterian Church of reproduced in collotype prefaced by a history and Scotland in 1912. John Knight Fotheringham was pal:eographical examination of all the extant manu• born at Tottenham in 1874, one of three brothers. scripts. For this work he visited many European He was a delicate child, and had indifferent health libraries. In 1923 appeared his printed Latin text of during his whole life. The inheritance of his remark• the "Chronici Canones" of Eusebius with a complete able genius must be partly attributed to his maternal apparatus criticus, and Latin introduction. It is ancestry ; his mother was Jane Ross, also descended obvious that this work of Eusebius on the fila from an ancient Scottish family ; her father was regnorurn or lists of reigns in Jewish, P ersian, Assyrian, master of the Lancasterian School at Tottenham, Greek and Roman history with historical comments and she taught at that school. He was educated at was of fundamental interest to him as a student of a school in connexion with the Tottenham Presby• ancient history ; the tale that he took up this work terian Church and then at the City of London School, because his birthday fell on August 14, a dedi• where he came under the instruction of Dr. Abbott, cated to a Saint Eusebius, is surely apochryphal. In the headmaster. Under Abbott and Rushbrooke he 1906 appeared vol. II (1801-37), edition 1911, received a sound classical training and entered of Longman's "Political History of England", but Merton College, Oxford, in 1891 with a leaving henceforth his life was to be almost entirely devoted to scholarship. At Merton he obtained a first in Greats astronomy and its application to ancient history. in 1896 and then proceeded to obtain a first in H ere he was destined to make contributions to Modern History in 1897. Magdalen College gave him on which his great fame will for ever rest. a Demyship, 1898-1902; he attended the British Fotheringham edited the fragments of Cleostratus School in Athens for one year, settled in Oxford and with a critical discussion of his importance as the became a coach. Magdalen College elected him to a first astronomer to introduce the signs of the research fellowship in 1909. H e became reader in into Greek science, together with the eight-year ancient history, University of London, 1912, and cycle of intercalation. In this work he combined a was a lecturer in classical literature at King's College, knowledge of philology with astronomy so as to 1904-9, lecturer in ancient history at King's College, enable him to clear up the meanings of several Greek 1909- 12. words and to interpret passages which had baffled About 1898, Fotheringham began the serious study the greatest classical scholars. Several articles wet·e of mathematics and astronomy, and made such devoted to the of the Crucifixion, or the problem, astonishing progress that in 1908 he was able to "In what year between A.D. 27-34 did Nisan 14 or

© 1937 Nature Publishing Group MAY 8, 1937 NATURE 789

15 fall on a Friday". His tables for the visibility of he submitted from various astronomers when he the new moon enabled him to place this problem on stood for the Savilian professorship at Oxford fill a more scientific basis, but he never came to a con• 34 pages. One of them states concerning his work on clusion which he proclaimed infallible. In his last the secular acceleration of the SWl and moon, article he prefers A.D. 33, April 3. "Fotheringham's theory is the only one which In 1915 Fotheringham published a very learned definitely solves tho problem and means the death work on Marco Sanudo, the Venetian prince who blow to the gravitation theory (as applied to eclipses) conquered the whole of the Grecian Archipelago in and will be the theory of the ", and this scholar 1205-6 for his native city in wars with Genoa. To pronounced Fotheringham to be the most brilliant do this piece of work he had to use Italian, Byzantine mathematical astronomer of his . He had a pro• Greek and French sources. He showed himself found influence in Germany and America ; in fact, master in this department of medieval history, a he was far better known abroad than he was in strictly philological investigati()n. But astronomy Great Britain. I must for my own part assert that was claiming more and more of his attention, par• I was always fully aware of his almost unlimited ticularly the history of that subject, and he was ability. His death has completely deranged my naturally drawn to Babylonian astronomy. I sup• plans. He was a typical Oxford product, modest, plied him with the texts of the observations of the accurate and profmmd. One can readily believe risings and settings of Venus during the reign of after working with him more than twenty-five Ammizaduga, tenth king of the First Babylonian that he was never angry about anything in his life. Dynasty. The book which we published together, Many were his disappointments in academic pro• "Venus Tablets of Ammizaduga", contains his opus motion, and worst of all he suffered constantly from magnum. I cannot enter into details here, but suffice poor health. All these things he bore like a Christian it to say that he and his colleague Carl Schoch under• gentleman, a title which gave him more satisfaction took to construct tables by which the new moons than any other. S. LANGDON. and risings of Mercury, Venus, Mars, .Jupiter and Saturn can be fixed back to 3507 B.c. in the case of An astronomical correspondent writes as follows : the moon, 2099 Mercury, 2999 Venus, 2148 Mars, 2153 Jupiter, 2123 Saturn. By elaborate astronomical Dr. J. K. Fotheringham's interest in astronomy control of the and by the Venus tables, Fother• developed from the study of ancient chronology. In ingham's calculation for the sixth year of Ammizaduga order to be able to study astronomical chronology at 1916-1915 B.C. was agreed to by Schoch after long he took some lessons in spherical trigonometry and discussion ; Schoch, recognized as the most brilliant elementary mathematical astronomy from the late constructor of historical planetary tables, at first Prof. H. H. Turner, and afterwards received some opposed this calculation, but was finally convinced. further help in the usc of lunar tables and the calcula• (So far as I know, astronomers were convinced by tion of eclipses from Prof. J. B. Dale, of King's Fotheringham's work, with the exception of Neuge• College, London, and Dr. P. Cowell, superintendent bauer.)* of the Nautical Almanac Office. With this modest Fotheringham also devoted much time to the work preparation for astronomical studies, he proceeded of the Babylonian astronomers Naburianos and to write a series of papers, in which his knowledge Cidenas, whom he regarded as the principal sources of ancient chronology had full scope, which are of on which Greek astronomy was founded. In the great astronomical irnportance. In these papers he last of his lifo he made a brilliant interpreta• discussed the occultations of stars by the moon tion of figures. on Babylonian astrolabes which had preserved in Ptolemy's "Almagest", the baffled Assyriologists to the day. He studied determinations of Hipparchus, and ancient observa• the voluminous publications of Greek astronomical tions of solar and hmar eclipses. The result of these texts, "Catalogus Codicum Astrologorum Gr::ecorum". investigations was to establish that the sun has a and was able to prove that much of it was borrowml secular acceleration of 3 ·0" per century per century, from Babylonia. and the moon has a secular acceleration of 2l·G" was now recognized as a man of per century per century. Lunar theory predicts a tmique knowledge; in fact, no man living combined secular acceleration for the moon of 12·2". The his immense classical knowledge with astronomy and residual acceleration, 9·4n, for the moon, and the whole chronology. His fame spread in intellectual centres of the secular acceleration of the sun cannot be all over the world and his correspondence was heavy. accounted for by gravitational theory. It is now He left a catalogue of all his books and generally accepted that these secular accelerations articles, together with a list of all the inquiries he are attributable largely, if not entirely, to the action received on chronology and astronomy. The list of of tidal friction, more especially in narrow seas such as inquiries runs to more than 350, and includes most the Irish Sea and the Bering Straits. of the eminent names of archooologists of the last Frem these studies, Fotheringham was led on to three in all lands. This notice is only a very the study of the discordances between the observed restricted resume of the work which .J. K. Fothering• positions of the moon and the positions computed ham accomplished. The printed testimonials which from pure gravitational theory. Newcomb had allowed for the major discordances by the intro• • Neugebauer's objection to Fotheringham's dating of the FiTSt Babylonian Dynasty seems to be subjective and unscientillc, for he duction of an empirical periodic . This so-called himself adopted Fotheringham's value• for the acceleration of Venus and the moon. "Great Empirical Term" was incorporated by Brown

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