A survey of the early history of science indicates that from the remotest period man was engaged in grappling with the great principle of causation. Progress was necessarily slow at first on account of the scarcity of tested data. Then it became more rapid. Soon after the founding of the great city of Babylon we find that the Babylonians were possessed of enough knowledge of the arts and sciences to enable them to become world traders and great industrial undertakers. They built many cities and lived highly civilized lives. The history of modern science may very properly be dated from the building of Babylon. CHAPTER III PRE-BABYLONIAN SCIENCE The transcending wonders of the phenomena of the heavenly bodies attracted the attention of primitive man at an early period of his intellectual development. The succession of day and night, the phases of the moon, comets, meteorites, the eclipses of sun and moon, the recurrence of the seasons were observed and recorded. In this way, through long uncivilized times, many scientific facts were noticed and handed down by tradition, and probably were among the first scientific data collected. We have no means of determining when the primitive science of astronomy became systematized, although there are reasons for believing that it was roughly outlined at a remote date. There was a tradition among the Babylonian priests that their astronomical observations and records went back to a period of more than 400,000 years. This statement was believed by the people of antiquity, and was made to Alexander the Great during his Indian campaign. Astronomy appears to have been developed into an organized system by the primitive peoples of central Asia. It was carried to China, India, and Arabia by learned travelers. There were government astronomers in China before the year 3000 B. C., and history records that two of these officials, named Ho and Hi, were beheaded in the year 2159 B. C. for being careless in their work and failing to issue a timely prediction of a solar eclipse. Chinese history also relates that the Emperor, in 2857 B. C., issued an edict recommending the study of astronomy. From these and other historical references we learn that nearly 5,000 years ago astronomical science was not only well developed, but that its educational value was recognized. While attention was being given to the study of astronomy in China, this science was independently developed in India. The astronomers of India invented a different system from that of the Chinese, and compiled numerous astronomical tables which were published and widely used as far back as 3102 B. C.