FROM NEBULA TO NEBULA 



9. The direction of the satellite's revolution also coinciding 

 with that of the planet's rotation. 



10. The largest planets rotate most swiftly. 



(The italics are all his, but the small caps are mine.) 



THE LAW OF GRAVITATION 



It is a notorious fact that the computations for the 

 Nautical Almanac are based, not on Newton's law of 

 gravitation at all, but on a purely empirical corruption "of 

 it. The late Dr. Simon Newcomb, who for many years 

 was at the head of that office in Washington, made no 

 secret of the fact that all computations based upon the 

 rigid law of the inverse square invariably disagree with 

 Nature's own results, and that, in order to cure the dis- 

 crepancies, he systematically tacked a minute decimal 

 (.0000001574) onto the exponent two. Why the addition 

 of this decimal was necessary, Newcomb confessed him- 

 self unable to explain ; his only excuse being the familiar 

 one of the schoolboy, namely, that it was the only way he 

 could ' ' get the answer in the book ' ' ! Indeed, Newcomb 's 

 method is now common among mathematical astronomers 

 all the world over ; although not all use his decimal, which 

 is being "doctored" continually by many hands in futile 

 efforts to get it "just right". Desirable though this ob- 

 ject may be from a practical point of view, the really im- 

 portant thing, philosophically considered, is to explain 

 the origin of the discrepancy. So long as this part con- 

 tinues unexplained, the very principle of universal gravi- 

 tation remains on trial. Empiricism is not science. In- 

 deed, is it not a historical fact that Newton at first stoi- 

 cally rejected his own theory of gravitation for precisely 

 such a discrepancy? Here let me quote a few words 

 from Professor Ernest W. Brown, the recognized chief 

 authority to-day on the lunar theory (A. J. S., Dec., 

 1914) : 



It appears now that [some of] the deviations of the moon 

 from its calculated path cannot be accounted for by any gravita- 

 tional cause. * * * From the agreement of the theoretical and ob- 



