Cursory remarks on some parts of a work, entitled Studies of nature ; originally written by M. de Saint Pierre, and translated into English by ... Henry Hunter / [William Cole].

  • Cole, William, active 1807.
Date:
1807
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Cursory remarks on some parts of a work, entitled Studies of nature ; originally written by M. de Saint Pierre, and translated into English by ... Henry Hunter / [William Cole]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    4£ it would present its equator to the sun witn as 4£ much regularity as it describes its annual couise “ round him. From these two constant motions <c never could be produced that other motion so <£ varied, by which it daily inclines one of its poles “ toward the sun, till its axis has formed, on the 4£ plane of its annual circle, an angle of twenty- <£ three degrees and an half; then that other leti o- <£ grade motion, by which it presents to him y ith 4£ equal regularity, the opposite pole.” His own hypothesis, respecting the same phenomena, he gives us [Page 165. Vol. L] in the following words. ££ As the ice of this pole which its gravity £C inclines towards the sun melts in proportion to 4C its vertical approximation to the source of heat, 4£ and as on the contrary, the ice of the opposite 44 pole increases in proportion to its removal, the 4£ necessary consequence must be, that the hist 44 pole becoming lighter, and the second heavier, 4£ the centre of gravity passes alternately from the ££ one to the other, and from this reciprocal pre- 44 ponderancy must ensue that motion ol the globe ££ in the ecliptic which produces our summer and 4£ winter.” If this passage have any meaning, it would from hence appear, that he considers the obliquity of the ecliptic, and the motion of the earth in it, as insufficient to account for the dif-