lii KANT'S UNIVERSAL NATURAL HISTORY 



the whole surface pressed upon from Pole to Pole, and its 

 height 2-J T foot. This latter number is peculiarly puzzling ; 

 for as it must contain the velocity of the equatorial current, 

 it cannot well be anything else than the falling height 

 corresponding to the mean velocity of that current, according 

 to the formula v 2 = 2gh ; but if this mean is put = ^, then the 

 formula gives h = ^J^ (for g = 3o), and if this is put more 



correctly as = -, we get h = ? = -. For the circumfer- 



71-' I5-7T 2 148 



ence or the radius of the Earth in miles, Kant could have no 

 other numbers than those we now have, but he would have 

 the length of the mile in Paris feet which, however, he does 

 not state, although the magnitude of that body of water and 

 its proportion to the magnitude of the Earth depends thereon. 

 And when he says that the body of water calculated by him 

 at 1,100,000 cubic fathoms is exceeded by the P^arth 123 

 billion times, we find it rather 132 billions the mile being 

 taken = 2 2, 800 Paris feet. Finally, when Kant under the 

 assumption already noted, that this proportion of the volume 

 is at the same time the proportion of the weight, finds those 

 two million years, it is to observed that in round numbers, 

 four million years = 132 billion seconds; and, therefore, 

 Kant seems to have concluded that because the pressure per 

 second of his body of water is exceeded 123 billion times by 

 the weight of the Earth, the half (?) of the 123 billion 

 seconds is required to exhaust the force of the earth, i.e., as 

 already observed, to double the time of the axial rotation. 

 Now, I cannot understand that division by 2 which should 

 rather be a multiplication by 2 nor can I harmonise this 

 reasoning with a subsequent remark of Kant that the force of 

 the Earth has been taken into calculation as that of a globe 

 shooting along with the velocity of a point under the 

 Equator (?). 



'However, the exact ascertainment of the amount of resist- 



