206 Mr. S. Tebay on the Law of Bode ; 



body analogous to tlae alcohols, the formation of glyceric acid 

 may be compared to that of acetic acid from common alcohol. 

 C2 H« + 02 = C2 H'» 02 + H^O. 

 Alcohol. Acetic acid. Water. 



C3 H8 03 + 02 = C3 H« 0* + H^O. 

 Glycerine. Glyceric Water, 



acid. 



Glyoxylic and glyceric acids and their compounds are homo- 

 logous. Further experiments are required to determine whether 

 glyceric acid is mono- or bibasic. 



Queenwood College, near Stockbridge, Hants. 



XXVII. On the Law o/Bode, with a remarkable coincidence in 

 I reference to the Satellite System of Jupiter ; and on the Rota- 

 tion of a Heavenly Body. By Mr. Septimus Tebay, B.A., 

 Head Master of Queen Elisabeth's Grammar School, Rivington, 

 Lancashire^. 



THE actual distances of the planets from the sun were not 

 known to the ancients, but their relative distances were 

 known with considerable accuracy. It was from the relative 

 distances that Kepler established his third law. This distin- 

 guished geometer had noticed the regular increase in the di- 

 stances of the planets proceeding outwards from the sun, and 

 predicted from analogy that a planet would hereafter be disco- 

 vered in the enormous space between the orbits of Mars and 

 Jupiter, no planet at that time being known to occupy this 

 interval. 



The discovery of Uranus by Sir William Herschel in 1781, 

 gave additional weight to the prediction of Kepler ; the distance 

 of Uranus being nearly double the distance of Saturn from the 

 sun. The remarkable law of Bode, which was about this time 

 discovered, caused astronomers to scrutinize more minutely the 

 space between Mars and Jupiter, in hopes of detecting the un- 

 known world which had hitherto eluded observation ; and early 

 in the present century four small planets were actually disco- 

 vered, thus completing the chain of interplanetary spaces. At 

 the present time not fewer than fifty-one of these small planets, 

 or asteroids, have been observed. They are supposed by many 

 persons to be the fragments of a large planet, which from some 

 unknown cause has burst. Their mean distances are all nearly 

 equal, and (with sufficient accuracy) the same as that pointed 

 out by Bode's law. By this law, if the mean distance of the 

 earth be denoted by unity, the mean distances of the other pla- 

 nets are approximately as follows : — 



• Communicated by the Author. 



