On the Precession of the Equinozes. 323 
will ever deserve the patronage and encouragement of the 
public, and the auxiliary efforts of the Engineer and t 
Philosopher, A. B. QUINBY. 
PHYSICS AND CHEMISTRY. 
Seen comin 
Art.XII1.—On the Precession of the Equinozes. 
To the Editor of the American Journal of Science. 
R, 
In examining the Theory, which has long been received, 
relative to the Precession of the Equinoxes, | have recently 
been induced to consider it questionable, and to account 
for this interesting phenomenon in a manner entirely new. 
Not being in a situation, however, to make accurate Astro- 
nomical observations, or to pursue the subject so far, as to 
form conclusions perfectly satisfactory, I transmit to you 
some of the objections, which I have to the prevailing the- 
ory, together with the method of accounting for this phe- 
- nomenon, recently discovered ; hoping, that the attention 
of Astronomers will be directed more minutcly to this sub- 
ject, and, that they will remove some of the obscurity from 
the old theory, if it is still considered supportable. 
It is unnecessary here to give the old theory at length ; 
as reference may easily be had to those authors by whom it 
is described ; and I shall notice only such things as are ne- 
cessary to make known my objections. : 
‘The precession of the Equinoxes has been attributed to 
the effect of the Sunand Moon on the superior portion 
of matter about the Earth’s Equator, which converts it 
from a sphere to an oblate spheroid ; and the case 
been represented as nearly parallel with that of the revo- 
lution of the Lunar nodes. 
until these are positively known, \ 
demonstration can be made of the nature and power of its 
attraction. a 
in, this cannot consistently be considered as a case 
parallel with that of the Lunar motions. In fig. 1, pl. 3, let S 
be the Sun, E the Earth, S E the plane of the Ecliptick, A 
0 the ring.of matter about the Equater. New, it is evi- 
