VOL. XLVI.] PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. 685 



served that the motion of the sun, or of the earth, is sensibly accelerated since 

 that time ; so that the years are shorter at present than formerly : the reason of 

 which is very natural; for if the earth, in its motion, suffers some little resist- 

 ance, which cannot be doubted, since the space through which the planets move, 

 is necessarily full of some subtile matter, were it no other than that of light, the 

 effect of this resistance will gradually bring the planets nearer and nearer the sun;- 

 and as their orbits thus tecome less, their periodical times will also be diminished. 

 Thus in time the earth ought to come within the region of Venus, and in fine 

 into that of Mercury, where it would necessarily be burnt. Hence it is manifest 

 that the system of the planets cannot last for ever in its present state. It also 

 incontestably follows, that this system must have had a beginning : for whoever 

 denies it, must grant that there was a time, when the earth was at the distance 

 of Saturn, and even farther ; and consequently that no living creature could sub- 

 sist there. Nay there must have been a time, when the planets were nearer to 

 some fixed stars than to the sun ; and in this case they could never come into 

 the solar system. This then is a proof, purely physical, that the world, in its 

 present state, must have had a begirming and must have an end. In order to 

 improve this notion, and to find with exactitude, how much the years become 

 shorter in each century ; I am in hopes that a great number of older observations 

 will afford me the necessary succours. 



On the Effects of the Mixture of the Farina of Apple-trees ; and of the Mayze or 

 Indian Corn: and of a Child Born with the Jaundice on it, received from its 

 Father ; and of the Mother taking the same Distemper from her Husband, the 

 next Time of being with Child. By Mr. Benj. Cooke, F. R.S. N°493, p. 205. 



When the farina of one apple impregnates another's blossom of differing spe- 

 cies, we see the change * in the fruit ; but whether any lasting impression is lefl 

 on the bough which bore it, as seems to be in tulips and some other flowers, is - 

 not so easy to determine, experiments of this sort being not to be made at all, 

 but catched at distant opportunities ; and till this point is settled, the distemper 

 of my good friend's tree must rest unexplained. 



Artificial helps of sight have added to former discoveries the explosive manner 

 of the farina's action ; but what may be the effect of the inconceivably fine sub- 

 tile matter emitted from its globules, and continually wafted about in great plenty 

 and variety in the summer air, not only on vegetable productions (where on dif- 

 ferent subjects it may not improbably have opposite effects) but other matters 

 not yet suspected to be so much under its influence, remains a field of inquiry 

 for future ages. However, to what Mr. Loggan has very justly observed (Trans^ 



• See these Transactions, N° 490.— Orig. 



