NA TURE 



529 



THURSDAY, APRIL 10, 1890. 



NEW LIGHT FROM SOLAR ECLIPSES. 



New Light from Solar Eclipses; or Chronology corrected 

 by the Rectification of Errors in the received Astro- 

 nomical Tables. By William M. Page. With an Intro- 

 duction by the Rev. J. Brookes, D.D. (St. Louis : Barns 

 Publishing Co., 1890.) 



THIS is a book with a considerable portion of which 

 we can have no concern, for it treats largely of 

 theological matters of a disputed kind. It is the produc- 

 tion, no doubt, of a devout and pious mind, but of one not 

 scientifically trained. Indeed, we are informed, in an in- 

 troduction by a St. Louis divine, that it is " written by 

 a brother actively engaged in the ordinary pursuits of 

 life," and an attempt is made to enlist our sympathies 

 with the author on that account. This appeal would have 

 been more effectual if the scientific conclusions at which 

 the author has arrived, and for which he hopes to gain 

 attention, were put forward either with more modesty on 

 his own part, or with greater respect for recognized 

 authorities. 



But the contrary is the case. Our prejudices are not 

 respected, and while the crudest statements are made on 

 the smallest possible evidence, the work so bristles with 

 errors that it is difficult to present typical examples. We 

 should have been tempted to leave this volume to the 

 obscurity it merits from a scientific point of view, but for 

 two circumstances. One is, that this book will probably 

 circulate largely among readers not qualified to judge of 

 the rashness of statement and inaccuracy of detail that 

 characterize its astronomical portion, and that con- 

 sequently a very erroneous and exaggerated opinion may 

 be formed of the character and amount of the errors that 

 still exist in one of the most exact of sciences. The second 

 inducement to look a little closely into its pages is this : 

 that another and more instructed class of readers may 

 imagine that on matters of chronology astronomy speaks 

 with an uncertain sound, and consequently be led to 

 undervalue the very substantial advantages that history 

 has derived from astronomical sources. 



The main object of the book is the arrangement of a 

 system that shall bring the narrative contained in the 

 Gospels into the chronological order conceived by the 

 author as correct, and to render consistent, the facts re- 

 corded in sacred and secular history, with this system. 

 How far this method and system will satisfy competent 

 theological critics it is, as we have said, not our duty to 

 inquire ; we can only hope that the service rendered to 

 religion is greater than that to science, for from the latter 

 point of view we have no hesitation in saying that his 

 theory is erroneous in its conception and unwarranted in 

 its application. 



The means employed to produce this chronological 

 harmony is based on the assumption that the places of 

 the sun and moon cannot be correctly computed for 

 distant dates from the existing tables, and that con- 

 sequently additional terms, empirically determined, must 

 be introduced. This new theory had best be described 

 Vol. xli.— No. 1067. 



in the author's own words, for fear we should not do it 

 justice : — 



" Our present lunation is too long by a fraction of a 

 second, amounting in the course of a century, to about 

 six minutes of time. In the same length of time, the 

 sun's anomaly is too long by about seven minutes ten 

 seconds of space, the moon's anomaly too long by eight 

 minutes twenty seconds of space, and the sun's mean 

 distance from the node is too short by about eight 

 minutes thirty- five seconds of space." 



After an attentive perusal we have not been able to 

 discover any additional explanation or reason for the in- 

 troduction of these terms. Neither have we discovered 

 to what assumed values of the mean longitude, the mean 

 anomaly, and the argument of latitude these corrections 

 are to be applied. The only references to authorities are 

 apparently those of Baily's " Tables " and Fergusson's " As- 

 tronomy," and the author does not appear to have had ac- 

 cess or thought it worth while to examine more modern and 

 trustworthy sources. We cannot be quite sure that vvc 

 have described correctly the elements of the lunar and 

 solar orbits to which these corrections are to be made, but 

 it is asserted that, when introduced into the tables, all 

 the eclipses recorded by the ancients can be represented 

 correctly within a few minutes of time. It is much to be 

 regretted that no rigorous comparison between the 

 observed and computed times of all the ancient eclipses 

 has been attempted, in order that a correct judgment 

 might be formed of the value of this assertion. This was 

 the more necessary as the few cases selected are, we think, 

 very infelicitous, and the incapacity of modern tables to 

 represent these eclipses is unjustifiably, but ho doubt unin- 

 tentionally, exaggerated. 



It is curious to notice that the author does not recognize 

 any other criterion of accuracy than the possibility of 

 satisfying these ancient eclipses, the records of which are 

 so imperfect, and the interpretation so doubtful, that they 

 are gradually being discarded in the discussion of the one 

 question for which they at one time seemed peculiarly 

 fitted — namely, the determination of the amount of the 

 secular acceleration of the moon's mean motion. The 

 whole mass of modern observation is ignored. The care- 

 ful records of eclipses made at Bagdad and Cairo in the 

 ninth and tenth centuries share the same fate. It would 

 seem that any observation made after the first half of the 

 first century does not appear to the author to possess any 

 value. 



It will scarcely be believed that this is a correct descrip- 

 tion of the author's method. No one will imagine that 

 any sane man would attempt to construct a lunar theory 

 from ancient eclipses alone, and expect that the results at 

 which he has arrived will be generally admitted, because, 

 forsooth, he is able to represent a few facts by the intro- 

 duction of nearly as many variables. It is true that the 

 tables founded on this vicious reasoning do not appear in 

 their integrity, and probably do not exist ; but there are 

 given many pages of computation, which are well calcu- 

 lated to mislead the uninstructed, and to give an air of 

 accuracy to the results, to which they are not entitled. 

 We can imagine nothing better adapted to bring 

 astronomy into disrepute with thoughtful, but not mathe- 

 matically trained minds, than the unwarranted conclusions 

 presented in the slovenly manner in which they appear 

 here. 



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