VOL. XLH,] ! PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. 653 



be greater in the axis than in the plane of the equator at equal distances from 

 the centre, an hypothesis perhaps might be found, that would account for most 

 of the phenomena ; but that a series of many exact observations is requisite, be- 

 fore we can examine with any certainty the various suppositions that may be 

 imagined, concerning the internal constitution of the earth. This doctrine is 

 likewise applied for determining the figure of Jupiter. 



It follows from the same theorem, that if we suppose the earth to be fluid, 

 and abstract from its motion on its axis, and the inclination of the right lines in 

 which its particles gravitate towards the sun or moon, the figure which it would 

 assume, in consequence of the unequal gravitation of its particles towards either 

 of those bodies, would be accurately that of an oblong spheroid, having its axis 

 directed towards that body. The ascent of the water, deduced from this 

 theorem, agrees nearly with that which Sir Isaac Newton found, by computing 

 it briefly from what he had demonstrated concerning the figure of the earth. 

 Several observations are subjoined concerning the tides, and the causes which 

 may contribute to increase or diminish them, particularly the inequality of the 

 velocities with which bodies revolve about the axis of the earth in different 

 latitudes. 



This chapter concludes by demonstrating briefly, that if the attraction of the 

 particles decreased as the cube of their distance increases, or in any higher pro- 

 portion, then any particle would tend towards the least portion of matter in 

 contact with it, with a greater force than towards the greatest body at any dis- 

 tance, how small soever from it. The true law of gravity is better adapted for 

 holding the parts of each body in a proper union, while it perpetuates the mo 

 tions in the great system about the sun, and preserves the revolutions in the less 

 systems nearly regular; and the author concludes with observing, that a re- 

 markable geometrical sin)plicity is often found in the conclusions that are derived 

 from it. 



Of a very large Calculus voided by a Woman with her Urine. By Antonio 

 Leprotti, Physician to the Pope, and F. R. S. N° 468, p. 363. From the 

 Latin. 



A poor woman, aged 50, and who had laboured under a strangury between 3 

 and 4 years before, one night was seized with a discharge of bloody urine, to 

 the quantity of about 3 lb. during which she voided a stone, which, after being 

 dried, weighed §ij gr. 2g, or 1 oz. 17 dwts. 4 gr. avoirdupois. 



