446 



COSMOS. 



Saturn 



Uranus 



Neptune *. 



The mass g^Va' which Le Verrier found by means of his 

 sagacious calculations before the actual discovery of Neptune 

 by Galle is greater, although remarkably near to the truth. 

 The arrangement of the principal planets, according to their 

 increasing masses, is, when leaving out the small ones, the 

 following : 



Mercury, Mars, Venus, Earth, Uranus, Neptune, Saturn, 



Jupiter ; 



thus like the volumes and densities, entirely different from 

 the order of succession of the distances from the central 

 body. 



6. Densities of the planets. By applying the above quoted 

 volumes and masses, the following numerical relations are 

 obtained for the densities of the planets (according as the 

 earth or water is taken as unity) : 



In the comparison of the density of the planets with water, 

 the density of the Earth serves as a basis. Reich's experi- 

 ments made in Freiberg with the torsion balance, gave 

 5-4383: very nearly the same as the analogous experiments 

 of Cavendish, which, according to the more accurate calcula- 

 tions of Francis Baily, gave 5'448. The result of Baily's 



