SOT 
THE 
AMERICAN 
JOURNAL OF SCIENCE, &c. 
Art. I.—Examination of the Theory of a Resisting Medium, in 
which it is assumed that the Planets and Comets of our System 
are moved ; by R. W. Hasxuns, of Buffalo, N. Y. 
In all ages, when astronomy has been cultivated, the opinion 
seems to have been entertained, in some one or more of its numer- 
ous forms and modifications, that the regions around us, beyond our 
atmosphere, and to an indefinite extent, are supplied with a rare, 
invisible medium, of unknown composition and character, in which 
all the bodies of our solar system, and perhaps the bodies of all 
other systems also, in executing the several motions assigned them, 
are necessitated to move. ‘To this substance the name of ether has 
usually been applied; and by this name we propose to designate 
it, while we examine into its history, the evidences of its existence, 
and its effects. The period at which this celestial ether was intro- 
duced into the science of astronomy, no less than the race of 
by whom it was effected, is probably beyond the reach of inquiry : 
we know only that in the most remote periods of the history of that 
science, we find it constituting a prominent part of the celestial 
mechanism. The Bramins, of India, whose astronomical tables, 
constructed more than three thousand years before the Christian 
era, are still preserved to us,(1) assumed its existence, and figura- 
tively supposed the stars to move themselves iia in a manner 
(1) Bailly, Traite de 1’Astronomie Indienne et Orientale: Prof. Playfair’s 
works, articles Astronomy of the Bramins, and Trigonometry of do.; Hutton’s 
ree “lg of Algebra, and Rev. S. Vince’s complete System of Astronomy, Vol. 2, 
P Von. XXXIII.—No. 1. 1 
