Chronology

(kro-nol'o-je.) [From Gr. chronos, time, and logos, discourse.] The science which determines the dates of events and the civil distinctions of time. The divisions of time are either natural or artificial; the natural are the year, month, week, day, and hour, deduced from the motions of the heavenly bodies and suited to the purposes of ordinary life; the artificial are the various eras, commencing with arbitrary epochs, or important events. [s. 185]