WHETHER THE EARTH HAS UNDERGONE AN 

 ALTERATION OF ITS AXIAL ROTATION. 



THE judgment will shortly be announced which the Royal 

 Academy of Sciences will deliver concerning the essays 

 which have been put in competition for the prize in con- 

 nection with their problem for this year. I have formed 

 certain views concerning this subject; and as I have 

 considered only its physical side, I should like to sketch 

 briefly my ideas concerning it, having now seen that 

 from its nature it is incapable of being brought on that 

 side to the degree of perfection which the treatise must 

 be expected to have which ought to carry off the prize. 



The problem set by the Academy is expressed in the 

 following terms : Whether the Earth in its Rotation round 

 its Axis, by which it brings about the alternation of day 

 and night, has undergone any alteration since the first period 

 of its origin. What may be the cause of this, and what 

 can make us certain of it ? The question may be investi- 

 gated historically. This might be done by examining the 

 monuments of antiquity dating from the remotest times, 

 as to the extent of their year and the intercalations which 



