594 



SCIENCE PROGRESS 



and 1500 a.d. the vine was planted and grew as a field crop in 

 the South of England. 1 This evidence showing that, as we go 

 back in time, warmer summers accompanied colder winters, is 

 exactly what one would expect to find. 



The polar conditions now disclosed under (4) are alone 

 sufficient without any further justification to compel atten- 

 tion, even though astronomers have hitherto regarded 

 Drayson as a " paradoxer." The truly paradoxical argument 

 is that of astronomers, who prefer a circle with a movable 

 centre. This is what their reasoning about the " invariable 

 plane " amounts to. 



Having amplified the discovery by showing its correspond- 

 ence with geological facts, I will here summarise the main 

 astronomical points which Drayson's new movement of the 

 pole of the heavens explains. 



A Comparative Summary 



1. Drayson states, in opposition to as- 



tronomers, that the Glacial Periods 

 were contemporaneous at both 

 Poles. 



2. Drayson maintained that errors in 



sidereal time existed, which by his 

 data could be corrected. 

 In 1892 the error by Drayson would 

 be 41 "28", according to de Horsey's 

 calculation. 



3. Drayson can compute the obliquity 



of the ecliptic for any year, past or 

 future, without observations. 



4. Drayson, by his data, can compute 



the Right Ascension and Declina- 

 tion of any star for any year, in the 

 past or future, from one observation 

 of that star. ' 



1. The views held by astronomers re- 



garding the Glacial Periods will, 

 on their own showing, have to be 

 abandoned. 



2. Mr. Stone in 1892, then Radcliffe 



Observer at Oxford, working from 

 a wholly different basis, asserted 

 that sidereal time was incorrect by 

 41*51 seconds. 



3. " Observations of the sun taken for 



this purpose are made continuously 

 at Greenwich" : Astronomer Royal. 



4. Astronomers can, apparently, only 



do this from several observations 

 at wide intervals, to arrive at a 

 mean for application to the star in 

 question. For an approximate 

 forecast they are limited to a fevr 

 years ahead. 



1 The Selbome Magazine, No. 301. 



2 Drayson recognised that many stars have proper motions of their own, but 

 maintained that a great number of the so-called proper motions were " due to the 

 movement of the earth's axis in a manner which has not hitherto been correctly 

 interpreted." If the spectrum shows that the majority have a proper motion, the 

 explanation may be that their enormous distances permit of such motions being 

 practically negligible. 



