1893.] NEW YOKK ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. 79 



matician will ever be tlie first to tackle the cliip on the slioulder 

 of incredulity-. In this case the incentive was a strong- one, 

 and the chip was unbearably exposed in such taunts as that 

 in Latham's English Dictionary, viz.: "The boomerang is a 

 puzzle and even mathematicians cannot comprehend the laws of 

 its actions." 



How the civilized world was aglow with the query, "What 

 makes it come back?" and how strong the incentive was to 

 satisfy the popular demand for a solution, is most graphically 

 pictured in the following extract from an editoi'ial in the Dublin 

 University Magazine in 1838. The editor says : 



" Of all the advantages we have derived from our Australian 

 settlements, none seem to have given more universal satisfaction 

 than the introduction of some crooked pieces of wood, called 

 boomerang. Walking sticks and umbrellas have gone out of 

 fashion ; and even in this rainy season no man carries anything 

 but a boomerang ; nor does this species of madness seem to be 

 abating. It wovild be utterly impossible for any periodical pro- 

 fessing to give an account of the subjects which from time to 

 time occupy the public mind, to leave out of its record all notice 

 of the strange passion which has converted all classes of our 

 fellow citizens — dignitaries of the church, fellows of our colleges, 

 grave divines and sober merchants — into boomerang throwers." 



The editor then discusses at length the principles involved 

 and attributes the phenomenon of its strange flight to its 

 rounded upper side. 



Another writer in the London and Edinlnrgh Philosophical 

 Magazine of 1838, also finds the solution in the rounded uj-yper 

 side. He cites the curious law of fluid resistances laid down by 

 Newton (see Principia, Prop. 34, Lib. 2), and concludes that the 

 flat side of the boomerang, the down side in throwing, will 

 suffer, if not twice as great, at least much greater resistance 

 than the rounded upper side, and so the missile would rise. 



I shall not dispute that reasoning, but what shall we say to 

 these philosophers if it shall turn out that our ideal boomerang, 

 with both sides flat, and no round side at all, will mount the air 

 like a bird, and soar and return ? 



Unheeding the calm caution of McCullagh, the bold mathe- 

 matical Don Quixote with poised pencil rashly charges upon a 

 wind-mill and is thrown. But these philosophic assertions are 

 more insidious foes to public confidence in our stock of knowl- 

 edge. Look at the encyclopsedia for instance which says of the 

 boomerang: " It is thrown bulged side down. -J" * * Its 

 surprising motion is produced by the bulged side of the missile. 

 The air impinging thereon lifts the instrument in the air 



