Babatha's Orchard : The Yadin Papyri

and an Ancient Jewish Family Tale

Retold 1st Edition Esler
Visit to download the full and correct content document:
https://textbookfull.com/product/babathas-orchard-the-yadin-papyri-and-an-ancient-je
wish-family-tale-retold-1st-edition-esler/
More products digital (pdf, epub, mobi) instant
download maybe you interests ...

The Jewish Family Between Family Law and Contract Law

Yehezkel Margalit

https://textbookfull.com/product/the-jewish-family-between-
family-law-and-contract-law-yehezkel-margalit/

The Kefir Cookbook An Ancient Healing Superfood for

Modern Life Recipes from My Family Table and Around the
World First Edition Julie Smolyansky

https://textbookfull.com/product/the-kefir-cookbook-an-ancient-
healing-superfood-for-modern-life-recipes-from-my-family-table-
and-around-the-world-first-edition-julie-smolyansky/

Underbug An Obsessive Tale of Termites and Technology

Lisa Margonelli

https://textbookfull.com/product/underbug-an-obsessive-tale-of-
termites-and-technology-lisa-margonelli/

Energy healing with the Kabbalah integrating ancient

Jewish mysticism with modern energetic practices First
Edition Stern

https://textbookfull.com/product/energy-healing-with-the-
kabbalah-integrating-ancient-jewish-mysticism-with-modern-
energetic-practices-first-edition-stern/
The promised land Bible stories retold Catharine Shaw

https://textbookfull.com/product/the-promised-land-bible-stories-
retold-catharine-shaw/

Hypatia: the life and legend of an ancient philosopher

1st Edition Hypatia

https://textbookfull.com/product/hypatia-the-life-and-legend-of-
an-ancient-philosopher-1st-edition-hypatia/

From Anti Judaism to Anti Semitism Ancient and Medieval

Christian Constructions of Jewish History Robert Chazan

https://textbookfull.com/product/from-anti-judaism-to-anti-
semitism-ancient-and-medieval-christian-constructions-of-jewish-
history-robert-chazan/

Retold Feminine Memoirs Our Collective Past and Present

1st Edition Gabriela Madlo

https://textbookfull.com/product/retold-feminine-memoirs-our-
collective-past-and-present-1st-edition-gabriela-madlo/

An Introduction to the Ancient World Lukas De Blois

https://textbookfull.com/product/an-introduction-to-the-ancient-
world-lukas-de-blois/
Another random document with
no related content on Scribd:
planet itself, in proportion to the quantity of matter in each; and the
planets attract one another just as much as they attract the sun,
according to the quantity of matter.

To prove this part of the law exactly is a matter which requires

careful experiments; and though proved experimentally by Newton,
has been considered in our time worthy of re-examination by the
great astronomer Bessel. There was some ground for doubt; for the
mass of Jupiter, as deduced from the perturbations of Saturn, was
only 1⁄1070 of the mass of the sun; the mass of the same planet as
deduced from the perturbations of Juno and Pallas was 1⁄1045 of that
of the Sun. If this difference were to be confirmed by accurate
observations and calculations, it would follow that the attractive
power exercised by Jupiter upon the minor planets was greater than
that exercised upon 550 Saturn. And in the same way, if the attraction
of the Earth had any specific relation to different kinds of matter, the
time of oscillation of a pendulum of equal length composed wholly or
in part of the two substances would be different. If, for instance, it
were more intense for magnetized iron than for stone, the iron
pendulum would oscillate more quickly. Bessel showed 47 that it was
possible to assume hypothetically a constitution of the sun, planets,
and their appendages, such that the attraction of the Sun on the
Planets and Satellites should be proportional to the quantity of
matter in each; but that the attraction of the Planets on one another
would not be on the same scale.
47 Berlin Mem. 1824.

Newton had made experiments (described in the Principia, Book

iii., Prop. vi.) by which it was shown that there could be no
considerable or palpable amount of such specific difference among
terrestrial bodies, but his experiments could not be regarded as
exact enough for the requirements of modern science. Bessel
instituted a laborious series of experiments (presented to the Berlin
Academy in 1832) which completely disproved the conjecture of
such a difference; every substance examined having given exactly
the same coefficient of gravitating intensity as compared with inertia.
Among the substances examined were metallic and stony masses of
meteoric origin, which might be supposed, if any bodies could, to
come from other parts of the solar system.
 CHAPTER IV.

Verification and Completion of the Newtonian Theory.

Tables of the Moon and Planets.

T HE Newtonian discovery of Universal Gravitation, so remarkable

in other respects, is also remarkable as exemplifying the
immense extent to which the verification of a great truth may be
carried, the amount of human labor which may be requisite to do it
justice, and the striking extension of human knowledge to which it
may lead. I have said that it is remarked as a beauty in the first
fixation of a theory that its measures or elements are established by
means of a few 551 data; but that its excellence when established is
in the number of observations which it explains. The multiplicity of
observations which are explained by astronomy, and which are
made because astronomy explains them, is immense, as I have
noted in the text. And the multitude of observations thus made is
employed for the purpose of correcting the first adopted elements of
the theory. I have mentioned some of the examples of this process: I
might mention many others in order to continue the history of this
part of Astronomy up to the present time. But I will notice only those
which seem to me the most remarkable.

In 1812, Burckhardt’s Tables de la Lune were published by the

French Bureau des Longitudes. A comparison of these and Burg’s
with a considerable number of observations, gave 9⁄100ths of a
second as the mean error of the former in the Moon’s longitude,
while the mean error of Burg’s was 18⁄100ths. The preference was
therefore accorded to Burckhardt’s.
 Yet the Lunar Tables were still as much as thirty seconds wrong in
single observations. This circumstance, and Laplace’s expressed
wish, induced the French Academy to offer a prize for a complete
and purely theoretical determination of the Lunar path, instead of
determinations resting, as hitherto, partly upon theory and partly
upon observations. In 1820, two prize essays appeared, the one by
Damoiseau, the other by Plana and Carlini. And some years
afterwards (in 1824, and again in 1828), Damoiseau published
Tables de la Lune formées sur la seule Théorie d’Attraction. These
agree very closely with observation. That we may form some notion
of the complexity of the problem, I may state that the longitude of the
Moon is in these Tables affected by no fewer than forty-seven
equations; and the other quantities which determine her place are
subject to inequalities not much less in number.

Still I had to state in the second Edition, published in 1847, that

there remained an unexplained discordance between theory and
observation in the motions of the Moon; an inequality of long period
as it seemed, which the theory did not give.

A careful examination of a long series of the best observations of

the Moon, compared throughout with the theory in its most perfect
form, would afford the means both of correcting the numerical
elements of the theory, and of detecting the nature, and perhaps the
law, of any still remaining discrepancies. Such a work, however,
required vast labor, as well as great skill and profound mathematical
knowledge. 552 Mr. Airy undertook the task; employing for that
purpose, the Observations of the Moon made at Greenwich from
1750 to 1830. Above 8000 observed places of the Moon were
compared with theory by the computation of the same number of
places, each separately and independently calculated from Plana’s
Formulæ. A body of calculators (sometimes sixteen), at the expense
of the British Government, was employed for about eight years in
this work. When we take this in conjunction with the labor which the
observations themselves imply, it may serve to show on what a scale
the verification of the Newtonian theory has been conducted. The
first results of this labor were published in two quarto volumes; the
final deductions as to correction of elements, &c., were given in the
Memoirs of the Astronomical Society in 1848. 48
48 The total expense of computers, to the end of reading the
proof-sheets, was 4300l.
Mr. Airy’s estimate of days’ works [made before beginning], for
the heavy part of calculations only, was thirty-six years of one
computer. This was somewhat exceeded, but not very greatly, in
that part.

Even while the calculations were going on, it became apparent

that there were some differences between the observed places of
the Moon, and the theory so far as it had then been developed. M.
Hansen, an eminent German mathematician who had devised new
and powerful methods for the mathematical determination of the
results of the law of gravitation, was thus led to explore still further
the motions of the Moon in pursuance of this law. The result was that
he found there must exist two lunar inequalities, hitherto not known;
the one of 273, and the other of 239 years, the coefficients of which
are respectively 27 and 23 seconds. Both these originate in the
attraction of Venus; one of them being connected with the long
inequality in the Solar Tables, of which Mr. Airy had already proved
the existence, as stated in Chap. vi. Sect. 6 of this Book.

These inequalities fell in with the discrepancies between the actual

observations and the previously calculated Tables, which Mr. Airy
had discovered. And again, shortly afterwards, M. Hansen found that
there resulted from the theory two other new equations of the Moon;
one in latitude and one in longitude, agreeing with two which were
found by Mr. Airy in deducing from the observations the correction of
the elements of the Lunar Tables. And again, a little later, there was
detected by these mathematicians a theoretical correction for the 553
motion of the Node of the Moon’s orbit, coinciding exactly with one
which had been found to appear in the observations.

Nothing can more strikingly exhibit the confirmation which

increased scrutiny brings to light between the Newtonian theory on
the one hand, and the celestial motions on the other. We have here
a very large mass of the best observations which have ever been
made, systematically examined, with immense labor, and with the
set purpose of correcting at once all the elements of the Lunar
Tables. The corrections of the elements thus deduced imply of
course some error in the theory as previously developed. But at the
same time, and with the like determination thoroughly to explore the
subject, the theory is again pressed to yield its most complete
results, by the invention of new and powerful mathematical methods;
and the event is, that residual errors of the old Tables, several in
number, following the most diverse laws, occurring in several
detached parts, agree with the residual results of the Theory thus
newly extracted from it. And thus every additional exactness of
scrutiny into the celestial motions on the one hand and the
Newtonian theory on the other, has ended, sooner or later, in
showing the exactness of their coincidence.

The comparison of the theory with observation in the case of the

motions of the Planets, the motion of each being disturbed by the
attraction of all the others, is a subject in some respects still more
complicated and laborious. This work also was undertaken by the
same indefatigable astronomer; and here also his materials
belonged to the same period as before; being the admirable
observations made at Greenwich from 1750 to 1830, during the time
that Bradley, Maskelyne, and Pond were the Astronomers Royal. 49
These Planetary observations were deduced, and the observed
places were compared with the tabular places: with Lindenau’s
Tables of Mercury, Venus, and Mars; and with Bouvard’s Tables of
Jupiter, Saturn, and Uranus; and thus, while the received theory and
its elements were confirmed, the means of testing any improvement
which may hereafter be proposed, either in the form of the
theoretical results or in the constant elements which they involved,
was placed within the reach of the 554 astronomers of all future time.
The work appeared in 1845; the expense of the compilations and the
publication being defrayed by the British Government.
49 The observations of stars made by Bradley, who preceded
Maskelyne at Greenwich, had already been discussed by Bessel,
a great German astronomer; and the results published in 1818,
with a title that well showed the estimation in which he held those
materials: Fundamenta Astronomiæ pro anno 1775, deducta ex
Ohservationibus viri incomparabilis James Bradley in specula
Astronomica Grenovicensi per annos 1750–1762 institutis.

The Discovery of Neptune.

The theory of gravitation was destined to receive a confirmation

more striking than any which could arise from any explanation,
however perfect, given by the motions of a known planet; namely, in
revealing the existence of an unknown planet, disclosed to
astronomers by the attraction which it exerted upon a known one.
The story of the discovery of Neptune by the calculations of Mr.
Adams and M. Le Verrier was partly told in the former edition of this
History. I had there stated (vol. ii. p. 306) that “a deviation of
observation from the theory occurs at the very extremity of the solar
system, and that its existence appears to be beyond doubt. Uranus
does not conform to the Tables calculated for him on the theory of
gravitation. In 1821, Bouvard said in the Preface to the Tables of this
Planet, “the formation of these Tables offers to us this alternative,
that we cannot satisfy modern observations to the requisite degree
of precision without making our Tables deviate from the ancient
observations.” But when we have done this, there is still a
discordance between the Tables and the more modern observations,
and this discordance goes on increasing. At present the Tables make
the Planet come upon the meridian about eight seconds later than
he really does. This discrepancy has turned the thoughts of
astronomers to the effects which would result from a planet external
to Uranus. It appears that the observed motion would be explained
by applying a planet at twice the distance of Uranus from the Sun to
exercise a disturbing force, and it is found that the present longitude
of this disturbing body must be about 325 degrees.

I added, “M. Le Verrier (Comptes Rendus, Jan. 1, 1846) and, as I

am informed by the Astronomer Royal, Mr. Adams, of St. John’s
College, Cambridge, have both arrived independently at this result.”

To this Edition I added a Postscript, dated, Nov. 7, 1846, in which I

said:

“The planet exterior to Uranus, of which the existence was inferred

by M. Le Verrier and Mr. Adams from the motions of Uranus (vol. ii.
Note (l.)), has since been discovered. This confirmation of
calculations founded upon the doctrine of universal gravitation, may
be looked upon as the most remarkable event of the kind since the
return of Halley’s comet in 1757 and in some respects, as a more
striking event 555 even than that; inasmuch as the new planet had
never been seen at all, and was discovered by mathematicians
entirely by their feeling of its influence, which they perceived through
the organ of mathematical calculation.

“There can be no doubt that to M. Le Verrier belongs the glory of

having first published a prediction of the place and appearance of
the new planet, and of having thus occasioned its discovery by
astronomical observers. M. Le Verrier’s first prediction was published
in the Comptes Rendus de l’Acad. des Sciences, for June 1, 1846
(not Jan. 1, as erroneously printed in my Note). A subsequent paper
on the subject was read Aug. 31. The planet was seen by M. Galle,
at the Observatory of Berlin, on September 23, on which day he had
received an express application from M. Le Verrier, recommending
him to endeavor to recognize the stranger by its having a visible
disk. Professor Challis, at the Observatory of Cambridge, was
looking out for the new planet from July 29, and saw it on August 4,
and again on August 12, but without recognizing it, in consequence
of his plan of not comparing his observations till he had accumulated
a greater number of them. On Sept. 29, having read for the first time
M. Le Verrier’s second paper, he altered his plan, and paid attention
to the physical appearance rather than the position of the star. On
that very evening, not having then heard of M. Galle’s discovery, he
singled out the star by its seeming to have a disk.

“M. Le Verrier’s mode of discussing the circumstances of Uranus’s

motion, and inferring the new planet from these circumstances, is in
the highest degree sagacious and masterly. Justice to him cannot
require that the contemporaneous, though unpublished, labors of Mr.
Adams, of St John’s College, Cambridge, should not also be
recorded. Mr. Adams made his first calculations to account for the
anomalies in the motion of Uranus, on the hypothesis of a more
distant planet, in 1843. At first he had not taken into account the
earlier Greenwich observations; but these were supplied to him by
the Astronomer Royal, in 1844. In September, 1845, Mr. Adams
communicated to Professor Challis values of the elements of the
supposed disturbing body; namely, its mean distance, mean
longitude at a given epoch, longitude of perihelion, eccentricity of
orbit, and mass. In the next month, he communicated to the
Astronomer Royal values of the same elements, somewhat
corrected. The note (l.), vol. ii., of the present work (2d Ed.), in which
the names of MM. Le Verrier and Adams are mentioned in
conjunction, was in the press in August, 1846, a 556 month before
the planet was seen. As I have stated in the text, Mr. Adams and M.
Le Verrier assigned to the unseen planet nearly the same position;
they also assigned to it nearly the same mass; namely, 2½ times the
mass of Uranus. And hence, supposing the density to be not greater
than that of Uranus, it followed that the visible diameter would be
about 3”, an apparent magnitude not much smaller than Uranus
himself.

“M. Le Verrier has mentioned for the new planet the name
Neptunus; and probably, deference to his authority as its discoverer,
will obtain general currency for this name.”

Mr. Airy has given a very complete history of the circumstances

attending the discovery of Neptune, in the Memoirs of the
Astronomical Society (read November 13, 1846). In this he shows
that the probability of some disturbing body beyond Uranus had
suggested itself to M. A. Bouvard and Mr. Hussey as early as 1834.
Mr. Airy himself then thought that the time was not ripe for making
out the nature of any external action on the planets. But Mr. Adams
soon afterwards proceeded to work at the problem. As early as 1841
(as he himself informs me) he conjectured the existence of a planet
exterior to Uranus, and recorded in a memorandum his design of
examining its effect; but deferred the calculations till he had
completed his preparations for the University examination which he
was to undergo in January, 1843, in order to receive the Degree of
Bachelor of Arts. He was the Senior Wrangler of that occasion, and
soon afterwards proceeded to carry his design into effect; applying to
the Astronomer Royal for recorded observations which might aid him
in his task. On one of the last days of October, 1845, Mr. Adams
went to the Observatory at Greenwich; and finding the Astronomer
Royal abroad, he left there a paper containing the elements of the
extra-Uranian Planet: the longitude was in this paper stated as 323½
degrees. It was, as we have seen, in June, 1846, that M. Le Verrier’s
Memoir appeared, in which he assigned to the disturbing body a
longitude of 325 degrees. The coincidence was striking. “I cannot
sufficiently express,” says Mr. Airy, “the feeling of delight and
satisfaction which I received from the Memoir of M. Le Verrier.” This
feeling communicated itself to others. Sir John Herschel said in
September, 1846, at a meeting of the British Association at
Southampton, “We see it (the probable new planet) as Columbus
saw America from the shores of Spain. Its movements have been
felt, trembling along the far-reaching line of our analysis, with a
certainty hardly inferior to that of ocular demonstration.” 557

In truth, at the moment when this was uttered, the new Planet had
already been seen by Professor Challis; for, as we have said, he had
seen it in the early part of August. He had included it in the net which
he had cast among the stars for this very purpose; but employing a
slow and cautious process, he had deferred for a time that
examination of his capture which would have enabled him to detect
the object sought. As soon as he received M. Le Verrier’s paper of
August 31 on September 29, he was so much impressed with the
sagacity and clearness of the limitations of the field of observation
there laid down, that he instantly changed his plan of observation,
and noted the planet, as an object having a visible disk, on the
evening of the same day.

In this manner the theory of gravitation predicted and produced the

discovery. Thus to predict unknown facts found afterwards to be true,
is, as I have said, a confirmation of a theory which in impressiveness
and value goes beyond any explanation of known facts. It is a
confirmation which has only occurred a few times in the history of
science; and in the case only of the most refined and complete
theories, such as those of Astronomy and Optics. The mathematical
skill which was requisite in order to arrive at such a discovery, may in
some measure be judged of by the account which we have had to
give of the previous mathematical progress of the theory of
gravitation. It there appeared that the lives of many of the most
acute, clear-sighted, and laborious of mankind, had been employed
for generations in solving the problem. Given the planetary bodies, to
find their mutual perturbations: but here we have the inverse problem
—Given the perturbations, to find the planets. 50
50 This may be called the inverse problem with reference to the
older and more familiar problem; but we may remark that the
usual phraseology of the Problem of Central Forces differs from
this analogy. In Newton’s Principia, the earlier Sections, in which
the motion is given to find the force, are spoken of as containing
the Direct Problem of Central Forces: the Eighth Section of the
 First Book, where the Force is given to find the orbit, is spoken of
as containing the Inverse Problem of Central Forces.

The Minor Planets.

The discovery of the Minor Planets which revolve between the

orbits of Mars and Jupiter was not a consequence or confirmation of
the Newtonian theory. That theory gives no reason for the distance
of 558 the Planets from the Sun; nor does any theory yet devised
give such reason. But an empirical formula proposed by the
Astronomer Bode of Berlin, gives a law of these distances (Bode’s
Law), which, to make it coherent, requires a planet between Mars
and Jupiter. With such an addition, the distance of Mercury, Venus,
Earth, Mars, the Missing Planet, Jupiter, Saturn, and Uranus, are
nearly as the numbers
4, 7, 10, 16, 28, 52, 100, 196,
in which the excesses of each number above the preceding are the
series
3, 3, 6, 12, 24, 48, 96.
On the strength of this law the Germans wrote on the long-expected
Planet, and formed themselves into associations for the discovery of
it.

Not only did this law stimulate the inquiries for the Missing Planet,
and thus lead to the discovery of the Minor Planets, but it had also a
share in the discovery of Neptune. According to the law, a planet
beyond Uranus may be expected to be at the distance represented
by 388. Mr. Adams and M. Le Verrier both of them began by
assuming a distance of nearly this magnitude for the Planet which
they sought; that is, a distance more than 38 times the earth’s
distance. It was found afterwards that the distance of Neptune is only
30 times that of the earth; yet the assumption was of essential use in
obtaining the result and Mr. Airy remarks that the history of the
discovery shows the importance of using any received theory as far
as it will go, even if the theory can claim no higher merit than that of
being plausible. 51
51 Account of the Discovery of Neptune, &c., Mem. Ast. Soc., vol.
xvi. p. 414.

The discovery of Minor Planets in a certain region of the interval

between Mars and Jupiter has gone on to such an extent, that their
number makes them assume in a peculiar manner the character of
representatives of a Missing Planet. At first, as I have said in the
text, it was supposed that all these portions must pass through or
near a common node; this opinion being founded on the very bold
doctrine, that the portions must at one time have been united in one
Planet, and must then have separated. At this node, as I have
stated, Olbers lay in wait for them, as for a hostile army at a defile.
Ceres, Pallas, and Juno had been discovered in this way in the
period from 1801 to 1804; and Vesta was caught in 1807. For a time
the chase for new planets in this region seemed to have exhausted
the stock. But after thirty-eight years, to the astonishment of
astronomers, they began to be again detected in extraordinary
numbers. In 1845, M. Hencke of 559 Driessen discovered a fifth of
these planets, which was termed Astræa. In various quarters the
chase was resumed with great ardor. In 1847 were found Hebe, Iris,
and Flora; in 1848, Metis; in 1849, Hygæa; in 1850, Parthenope,
Victoria, and Egeria; in 1861, Irene and Eunomia; in 1852, Psyche,
Thetis, Melpomene, Fortuna, Massilia, Lutetia, Calliope. To these we
have now (at the close of 1856) to add nineteen others; making up
the whole number of these Minor Planets at present known to forty-
two.

As their enumeration will show, the ancient practice has been

continued of giving to the Planets mythological names. And for a
time, till the numbers became too great, each of the Minor Planets
was designated in astronomical books by some symbol appropriate
to the character of the mythological person; as from ancient times
Mars has been denoted by a mark indicating a spear, and Venus by
one representing a looking-glass. Thus, when a Minor Planet was
discovered at London in 1851, the year in which the peace of the
world was, in a manner, celebrated by the Great Exhibition of the
Products of All Nations, held at that metropolis, the name Irene was
given to the new star, as a memorial of the auspicious time of its
discovery. And it was agreed, for awhile, that its symbol should be a
dove with an olive-branch. But the vast multitude of the Minor
Planets, as discovery went on, made any mode of designation,
except a numerical one, practically inconvenient. They are now
denoted by a small circle inclosing a figure in the order of their
discovery. Thus, Ceres is ⓵, Irene is ⑭, and Isis is ㊷.

The rapidity with which these discoveries were made was owing in
part to the formation of star-maps, in which all known fixed stars
being represented, the existence of a new and movable star might
be recognized by comparison of the sky with the map. These maps
were first constructed by astronomers of different countries at the
suggestion of the Academy of Berlin; but they have since been
greatly extended, and now include much smaller stars than were
originally laid down.
 I will mention the number of planets discovered in each year. After
the start was once made, by Hencke’s discovery of Astræa in 1845,
the same astronomer discovered Hebe in 1847; and in the same
year Mr. Hind, of London, discovered two others, Iris and Flora. The
years 1848 and 1849 each supplied one; the year 1850, three; 1851,
two; 1852 was marked by the extraordinary discovery of eight new
members of the planetary system. The year 1853 supplied four;
1854, six; 1855, four; and 1856 has already given us five. 560

These discoveries have been distributed among the observatories

of Europe. The bright sky of Naples has revealed seven new planets
to the telescope of Signer Gasparis. Marseilles has given us one;
Germany, four, discovered by M. Luther at Bilk; Paris has furnished
seven; and Mr. Hind, in Mr. Bishop’s private observatory in London,
notwithstanding our turbid skies, has discovered no less than ten
planets; and there also Mr. Marth discovered ㉙ Amphitrite. Mr.
Graham, at the private observatory of Mr. Cooper, in Ireland,
discovered ⓽ Metis.

America has supplied its planet, namely ㉛ Euphrosyne,

discovered by Mr. Ferguson at Washington and the most recent of
these discoveries is that by Mr. Pogson, of Oxford, who has found
the forty-second of these Minor Planets, which has been named
Isis. 52
52 I take this list from a Memoir of M. Bruhns, Berlin, 1856.

I may add that it appears to follow from the best calculations that
the total mass of all these bodies is very small. Herschel reckoned
the diameters of Ceres at 35, and of Pallas at 26 miles. It has since
been calculated 53 that some of them are smaller still; Victoria having
a diameter of 9 miles, Lutetia of 8, and Atalanta of little more than 4.
It follows from this that the whole mass would probably be less than
the sixth part of our moon. Hence their perturbing effects on each
other or on other planets are null; but they are not the less disturbed
by the action of the other planets, and especially of Jupiter.
53 Bruhns, as above.

Anomalies in the Action of Gravitation.

The complete and exact manner in which the doctrine of

gravitation explains the motions of the Comets as well as of the
Planets, has made astronomers very bold in proposing hypotheses
to account for any deviations from the motion which the theory
requires. Thus Encke’s Comet is found to have its motion
accelerated by about one-eighth of a day in every revolution. This
result was conceived to be established by former observations, and
is confirmed by the facts of the appearance of 1852. 54 The
hypothesis which is proposed in order to explain this result is, that
the Comet moves in a resisting medium, which makes it fall inwards
from its path, towards the Sun, and thus, by narrowing its orbit,
diminishes its periodic time. On the other hand, M. Le Verrier has
found that Mercury’s mean motion has gone on diminishing; 561 as if
the planet were, in the progress of his revolutions, receding further
from the Sun. This is explained, if we suppose that there is, in the
region of Mercury, a resisting medium which moves round the Sun in
the same direction as the Planets move. Evidence of a kind of
nebulous disk surrounding the Sun, and extending beyond the orbits
of Mercury and Venus, appears to be afforded us by the
phenomenon called the Zodiacal Light; and as the Sun itself rotates
on its axis, it is most probable that this kind of atmosphere rotates
also. 55 On the other hand, M. Le Verrier conceives that the Comets
which now revolve within the ordinary planetary limits have not
always done so, but have been caught and detained by the Planets
among which they move. In this way the action of Jupiter has
brought the Comets of Faye and Vico into their present limited orbits,
as it drew the Comet of Lexell out of its known orbit, when the Comet
passed over the Planet in 1779, since which time it has not been
seen.
54 Berlin Memoirs, 1854.

55 M. Le Verrier, Annales de l’Obs. de Paris, vol. i. p. 89.

Among the examples of the boldness with which astronomers

assume the doctrine of gravitation even beyond the limits of the solar
system to be so entirely established, that hypotheses may and must
be assumed to explain any apparent irregularity of motion, we may
reckon the mode of accounting for certain supposed irregularities in
the proper motion of Sirius, which has been proposed by Bessel, and
which M. Peters thinks is proved to be true by his recent researches
(Astr. Nach. xxxi. p. 219, and xxxii. p. 1). The hypothesis is, that
Sirius has a companion star, dark, and therefore invisible to us; and
that the two, revolving round their common centre as the system
moves on, the motion of Sirius is seen to be sometimes quicker and
sometimes slower.

The Earth’s Density.

“Cavendish’s experiment,” as it is commonly called—the measure

of the attractions of manageable masses by the torsion balance, in
order to determine the density of the Earth—has been repeated
recently by Professor Reich at Freiberg, and by Mr. Baily in England,
with great attention to the means of attaining accuracy. Professor
Reich’s result for the density of the Earth is 5·44; Mr. Baily’s is 5·92.
Cavendish’s result was 5·48; according to recent revisions 56 it is
5·52.
56The calculation has been revised by M. Edward Schmidt.
Humboldt’s Kosmos, ii. p. 425.

562 But the statical effect of the attraction of manageable masses,

or even of mountains, is very small. The effect of a small change in
gravity may be accumulated by being constantly repeated in the
oscillations of a pendulum, and thus may become perceptible. Mr.
Airy attempted to determine the density of the Earth by a method
depending on this view. A pendulum oscillating at the surface was to
be compared with an equal pendulum at a great depth below the
surface. The difference of their rates would disclose the different
force of gravity at the two positions; and hence, the density of the
Earth. In 1826 and 1828, Mr. Airy attempted this experiment at the
copper mine of Dolcoath in Cornwall, but failed from various causes.
But in 1854, he resumed it at the Harton coal mine in Durham, the
depth of which is 1260 feet; having in this new trial, the advantage of
transmitting the time from one station to the other by the
instantaneous effect of galvanism, instead of by portable watches.
The result was a density of 6·56; which is much larger than the
preceding results, but, as Mr. Airy holds, is entitled to compete with
the others on at least equal terms.

Tides.

I should be wanting in the expression of gratitude to those who

have practically assisted me in Researches on the Tides, if I did not
mention the grand series of Tide Observations made on the coast of
Europe and America in June, 1835, through the authority of the
Board of Admiralty, and the interposition of the late Duke of
Wellington, at that time Foreign Secretary. Tide observations were
made for a fortnight at all the Coast-guard stations of Great Britain
and Ireland in June, 1834; and these were repeated in June, 1835,
with corresponding observations on all the coasts of Europe, from
the North Cape of Norway to the Straits of Gibraltar; and from the
mouth of the St. Lawrence to the mouth of the Mississippi. The
results of these observations, which were very complete so far as
the coast tides were concerned, were given in the Philosophical
Transactions for 1836.

Additional accuracy respecting the Tides of the North American

coast may be expected from the survey now going on under the
direction of Superintendent A. Bache. The Tides of the English
Channel have been further investigated, and the phenomena
presented under a new point of view by Admiral Beechey. 563

The Tides of the Coast of Ireland have been examined with great
care by Mr. Airy. Numerous and careful observations were made with
a view, in the first instance, of determining what was to be regarded
as “the Level of the Sea;” but the results were discussed so as to
bring into view the laws and progress, on the Irish coast, of the
various inequalities of the Tides mentioned in Chap. iv. Sect. 9 of this
Book.

I may notice as one of the curious results of the Tide Observations

of 1836, that it appeared to me, from a comparison of the
Observations, that there must be a point in the German Ocean,
about midway between Lowestoft on the English coast, and the Brill
on the Dutch coast, where the tide would vanish: and this was