1893. ] NEW YORK ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. 79 
matician will ever be the first to tackle the chip on the shoulder 
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 isa 
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 editorial 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 would 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 Edinburgh Philosophical 
Magazine of 1838, also finds the solution in the rounded upper 
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 encyclopedia for instance which says of the 
boomerang: ‘‘Itis thrown bulged side down. * * * Its 
surprising motion is produced by the bulged side of the missilé,. 
The air impinging thereon lifts the instrument in the air 
