510 PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. [aNNO 1721. 



from England near 100 years since, and not the natural produce of this part 

 of America ; for the first planters of New England never observed a bee in the 

 woods, till many years after the country was settled. And in further proof, 

 the Aborigines, the Indians, have no word in their language for a bee, as 

 they have for all animals whatever proper to the country; and therefore for 

 many years they called a bee by the name of Englishman's fly. 



Our people formerly used to find out honey in the woods, by surprising and 

 following one bee after another by the eye, till at length they found out where 

 the bees hived. It is remarkable, that when the bees swarm, they never go to 

 the northward, but move southward, or inclining that way. It is also observed 

 that when one bee goes home from the sugar-plate, he returns with a consider- 

 able number from the hive. 



Some Propositions concerning the Parabolic Motion of Projectiles, written in 

 1710. By Brook Taylor, LL. D, F,R.S. N° 367, p. 151. Translated 

 from the Latin. 



Prop. I. The Force and Direction of Gravity being given ; the Path of 

 a Body, projected in a non-resisting Medium, is in a Parabola. — For let the 

 body be projected from the place a, fig. 1, pi. 14, in the direction ab, and let 

 its path be the curve acd. At any point in it c, draw cb in the direction of 

 gravity; then the motion of the projectile in ac is resolved into the parts ab, 

 BC, of which AB arises from the uniform motion of projection, and bc from 

 the accelerating force of gravity. Therefore the line ab is proportional to the 

 time from the beginning of the motion at a, but bc is in the duplicate ratio 

 of the same time, as Galileo formerly demonstrated, and therefore in the du- 

 plicate ratio of ab. Since then bc is in the duplicate ratio of ab, it follows 

 that the curve ACD is a parabola, a. £. d. isi > i ;. 



Prop. II. The Velocity of the Projectile, in any Point of its Path, is the 

 same as that acquired by a Body falling through an Altitude eqvxil to the 

 4th Part of the Parameter of the Parabola at that Point. — For let acd, 

 fig. 2, be the path. To any point in it a, draw the tangent ab, and the dia- 

 meter AE. Take ab equal to half the parameter to the vertex A, and draw 

 BC parallel to ae, meeting the curve in c, and to the point c draw the tan- 

 gent CG, meeting ab in p and ae produced in g. Then, from the nature of 

 the parabola, ag and cb will be equal, and therefore also af and pb : and since 

 AB is equal to half the parameter at the point a, bc will be the 4th part of 

 the same parameter, and therefore equal to bp. Draw bc very near and parallel 

 to bc, meeting the parabola in c, also draw c(3 parallel to Bb, and meeting bc 



