[ 8j ] 



from an aperture in the bottom or fide of a veffel ; but there Is 

 none which feems to have produced greater perplexity. 



Scarcely can one writer be found who acquiefces in the folu- 

 tion of another. Even the great Newton, who paid particular 

 attention to this fubjefl, is not very confiftent with himfelf. In 

 the firft edition of his Principia he endeavours to prove, that the 

 velocity of the fpouting water is equal to that which a heavy body 

 would acquire in falling through half the height of the water above 

 the aperture; in his fecond and third editions he relinquiflies this 

 calculation, and demonftrates that the velocity is that which 

 would be acquired in falling through the entire altitude. Yet he 

 immediately fubjoins an account of experiments which he made 

 ■with a view to afcertain this point, and which feem inconfiftent 

 with the demonftration he adheres to, though very confonant to 

 that which he rcjedts. 



The demonftration which he gives in the firft edition appears 

 at firft fight to be unexceptionable, and has accordingly been 

 received^^y the learned Emerfon, Whifton, Mr. Wildbore in 

 Hutton's Mijcellanea Mathem. and other good philofophers. It is 

 to this effed : 



If a veftel be filled with water, and perforated in the bottom 

 fo as that the water may flow through the aperture, it is manifeft 

 that the bottom will fuftain the weight of all the water except 

 the weight of that part perpendicularly incumbent over the orifice. 

 For if the orifice be clofed by any obftacle, that obftacle will fuftain 

 the weight of the water perpendicularly incumbent on it, and the 



bottom 



