296 Variation in the Obliquity of the Ecliptic. [July, 
which geological knowledge shows us is erroneous. That a 
curve should now be traced by the earth’s axis, which, 
carried back 13,000 years, will cause an_ obliquity 
of 35°, is a fact not to be disposed of by the mere 
quotation of what the present accepted theories are, espe- 
cially when geological evidence so positively demonstrates 
that such climatic changes as would follow this condition 
actually prevailed on earth. Whilst, however, the earth’s 
axis now traces this course, a different position of the earth’s 
centre of gravity would cause a different movement, and 
hence the course might have been such in former times as to 
cause the obliquity to have been far less than it now is,—a 
condition which would produce almost an uniform climate 
over the whole earth, as seems to have been the case during 
the Miocene period. 
The present accepted belief, therefore,—that the pole of 
the heavens always traces a circle round the pole of the 
ecliptic as a centre, and that the only producing cause of a 
change in the value of the obliquity must be a change in 
the position of the plane of the ecliptic,—appears erroneous, 
and to have been based on an imperfeét collection of data. 
No allowance has been made for a change in the position of 
the earth’s centre of gravity, and no knowledge has been 
shown that the course traced by the earth’s axis has even 
now a definite chara¢ter, which is not a circle having for its 
centre the pole of the ecliptic. 
The statement, also, that the course traced by the earth’s 
axis in all past times must have been the same that it now 
is, is the same as affirming that if you alter the position of 
the centre of gravity of a rotating body you still cause no 
change in its movements,—an assertion so palpably erroneous 
that we believe all unprejudiced persons must, when this 
omission is pointed out to them, admit that their position is 
untenable, and must grant that a considerable change, both 
greater and less, in the obliquity is not only possible, but 
must have occurred. 
That vast volumes of water have at various times been 
transferred from one part to the other of our sphere is a 
well-known fa@. That this transferral must cause a change 
in the position of the centre of gravity follows as a result ; 
whilst a change in the movement of the axis of rotation 
also follows as a natural law. 
Hence the evidence derived from the course now traced 
by the earth’s axis, from the evidence relative to changes in 
the earth’s centre of gravity inducing a different movement, 
from the convincing evidence of Geology relative to the 
