332 Does the Moon Rotate f [July, 



David Mushat, M. E., in the London Mining Journal, have sustained the 

 views of Mr. Sjmonds in very able articles." — Scientijic American, of 

 June 14. 



It is fortunate for the intellectual progress of mankind that we have 

 Bome men of original minds without the pale of " the schools," who can 

 correct the thousand errors that are taught in ' Academus' sacred shade:* 

 men who will not believe that two and two make four because it is 

 taught in the schools; men of the "Deacon Homespun" order, who are 

 Bot to be taught that the earth turns over every day, for they know 

 that the water is not spilt out of their mill ponds. 



But to speak seriously : we could not have believed the Scientijic 

 American responsible for the above article, had we not seen it in its 

 columns as original matter. The article itself contains the fact by 

 which we prove the Moon's axial rotation. When it asks, " how can the 

 Moon rotate when it always presents the same face to the Earth?" we 

 reply, that in no other way could it keep the same face presented to the 

 Earth than by rotating upon its axis in the same time that it makes a 

 revolution about the Earth. To make this subject plain to any child 

 who doubts it, place him, say, with his back to the south and his face 

 toward a candle, or anything to represent the Earth, and let him walk 

 around it sidewise while his face is always toward the candle. AYhen 

 he has walked half way around the candle, his back will be toward the 

 north, and when he has completed his revolution, his back will be 

 toward the south, as at the beginning. Thus his back in the course of 

 his walk has been presented to all parts of the compass, just as if he 

 had turned around once in his tracks. If he had not turned once 

 around, then his face would have looked the same way in all parts of 

 his walk, that is, in the case supposed, toward the north ; and then all 

 sides of his body would in turn have been presented toward the candle. 

 As the Moon, however, always presents the same side toward the Earth, 

 we think any bright child of ten years can understand that it makes 

 one rotation on its axis in the same time in which it makes a revolution 

 about the Earth. If it did not rotate at all, or if its rotation was more 

 rapid than it now is, it would present different faces (not jjhases, for 

 they would be the same as now), to the Earth. 



A word or two in regard to the statement " that a great deal of what 

 is taught in schools is assumption, not fact." If the writer means that 

 theories are sometimes advanced to account for the mysterious operations 

 of nature, we admit it ; but they are offered as theories, and hence are 

 not assumptions, and instead of misleading the student, they rather 

 urge him to question and research, to see if the theory is capable of 



