a ee ge eee ey ee lS owe a 
J 7 arth, 129 
to fl simple proof which it could not have er sai tr 
r aoniee of the masses of water with the | 
fluid as you please, Sinlanpedi ossible make ate mme of 
water dissolve fifty thousand sit easter of earthy and metallic 
matter. 
“We must be permitted to say, that we have not been brought 
back to the theory of a central fire by any spirit of system, but 
in opposition to system, and in spite of prejudices: The force 
of fact has produced this change of opinion; it results from con- 
siderations carefully ee on, and from phenomena of a very 
different order. Above all. we cannot believe that it is by mere 
accident that natural philosiaitiy, astronomy, and geology have 
arrived at the same point such different routes. We may 
real and fundamental principle ; and we may expect it will, by 
and by, have as happy an influence on the theory of the e 
as the great principle of, gravitation has had on the theory of 
lane otions. 
P ry m 
& a this point of our bowled it shoald seem that the Acad- 
: ht not to remain 0 so fp s0-reat a eatin, 
Pechay it is now time to ioe * 
Up a 
28th November, 1825, by M. de la Place. * Pe Perhaps it tWoakd fae 
er also to engage the codperation of all our scavans by dis- 
tributing the elements of the question as subjects for prize. Pai 
Ac wo was pe sie during the whole century in determ 
the figure of the earth, An investigation of the brindple: that 
b 
belonging to it, is mate sie worthy of the efforts of the 
ademy, nor beneath the means at her disposal. The end pro- 
posed is certainly am among the cxguinsiel upon which hnman inge- 
nuity can exercise itself; and success would be eager to the 
whole of science. If the t mass 
which it has long been supposed to be, if the iacaemial of in- 
ertia be solely satribabie to the slow development of the phe- 
* The proposal was, to name a committee of six —— Messrs. La 
y Gay Lu and Du! p & pro- 
me of experiments to be executed : so that the Academy might determine 
by exact experiments—l. The state of the maghetioe tism of the earth. 2. The 
ressure and composition of the atmosphere. 3. The heat of the globe, at aif- 
ferent depths 
Vou. XV. —No. 1 1s 7 
