VOL. XXI.} PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. 415 



regenerated, that a new ardour may likewise be infused into our Royal Society. 

 And indeed I have admonished them of this, in your words. But they them- 

 selves, which you will not be sorry for, had in a manner prevented my admo- 

 nition. For they have lately made some new regulations for themselves, by 

 which every member is to promote some particular subject. But there is this 

 difference between the French Academy, and our Royal Society ; that the 

 academicians are at the king's expence, everyone having his salary; whereas ours 

 do every thing at their own expence. 



On some supposed Alteration of the Meridian Line; ivhich may affect the Decli- 

 nation of the Magnetical Needle, and the Pole's Elevation. By Dr. TVallis. 

 N° 255, p. 285, 



An extract from an anonymous letter to the doctor is in these words: "What 

 I would offer, is this, taking for granted that the earth moves, &c. You know, 

 that besides the diurnal and annual revolutions, there must also be a third, to 

 account for that slow motion of the fixed stars, upon the poles of the ecliptic, 

 in about '25,000 years; which is solved by the direction of the earth's axis from 

 one point to another of the polar circle. And that direction being nothing but 

 a certain wabble in the earth's motion, must needs make the noon-sliade of a 

 perpendicular not lie always in the same line. I would request, that this hint 

 might be improved in one of the next Transactions, if I were sure that it were 

 not a blunder. But if so, I have this to excuse, that I have not made it tedious.. 

 I am. Sir, your most humble servant." To which the doctor answers, 



Now this being a new suggestion, and which, if well grounded, may be of 

 considerable consequence, both as to the declination of the magnetic needle,- 

 and the pole's elevation, and therefore deserving to be well considered : and it 

 not being very probable that so careful a man as Tycho, and those concerned in 

 the church of St. Petronio, mentioned in N° 24], should be so much mistaken 

 in the Meridian line, I thought fit to recommend it to the thoughts of others. 

 But, if there be ought of this nature, it must arise from a change of the ter- 

 restrial poles, here on earth, of the earth's diurnal motion; not of tiieir point- 

 ing to this or that of the fixed stars; for, if the poles of this diurnal motioii 

 remain fixed to the sam.e place on the earth; the meridians, which pass through 

 these poles, must remain the same. 



On the Antiquity of the Numeral Figures in England. In a Letter to Dr, 

 JJ'allis, from ]\Ir. Thomas Luff'kin. N^ 253, p. 287. 



Rev. Sir. — Finding that you cannot trace the use of numeral figures irt 



