Three years after Mr. Bowditch’s discussion, Mr. Meinshausen published an article in which the relation of this series to eclipses was first brought out.[19] He compared, by means of two tables, recorded eclipses of the 18th and 19th centuries with the numbers in the Dresden Codex. Out of the 69 dates in the manuscript all but 15 dates agreed with the first case, and, in the second, all but 13, due to the fact that all the eclipses are not visible at one place on the earth’s surface. “Another indication that the numbers in the codex have arisen from the observation of eclipses lies in the fact that the exact grouping of the numbers which is induced by the insertion of pictures in the number periods is also possible in lunar eclipses which are visible at one particular point.”[20] In the table given to uphold this statement, the numbers, to be sure, can be grouped in the manner which he suggests; but they can also be grouped in other series. In his opinion the reason for the grouping “lies in the close proximity of a solar eclipse to a lunar eclipse,”[21] that is, that at the date at which the pictures are inserted a solar eclipse occurred 15 days either before or after a lunar eclipse. There are two facts which tend to uphold this theory. One is the occurrence of the sun and the moon in shields over nearly all pictures, which he interprets as “signs of solar and lunar eclipses”; the other is the series of dates on pages 51a and 52a, which are 15 days apart. In a table of recorded eclipses proof is given that such double eclipses can occur at the intervals which separate the pictures in the manuscript. Since these intervals vary a great deal, Meinshausen believes that they will form the means of identifying the specific eclipses recorded in the manuscript. [19] Meinshausen, 1913, pp. 221-227. [20] Ibid., p. 225. [21] Meinshausen, 1913, p. 225. His general conclusion is that “the material advanced will prove sufficiently that these numbers are associated in some way with solar and lunar eclipses, and this explanation must remain standing at least until other numbers, corresponding equally remarkably, are found.”[22] [22] Ibid., pp. 226, 227. Professor R. W. Willson of the Astronomical Department of Harvard University, working on a similar theory at about the same time, had found, however, that no series of solar eclipses corresponding to the intervals of the pictures in the text was visible in Yucatan between the Christian era and the time of the Spanish conquest.[23] This apparently invalidates Meinshausen’s theory. [23] Professor Willson’s work on the Dresden manuscript has not yet been published. It is referred to here only through his kind permission.