VOL. XLVII.] PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. 203 



the person had not been dead above 4 days, but much more flat and compressed 

 than usual , the joints very flexible and supple ; the knees in particular, the pa- 

 tella, tendons, ligaments, and the whole articulation being as smooth, unctuous, 

 and flexible, as in a body newly dead. 



Simon Worth, Esq. whose corpse this was, died at Madrid, and was sent home 

 in the manner described, and so buried. His wife's coffin, who was buried in 

 the same vault 2 years before, and 2 of his children about 1 1 years after (as ap- 

 peared by the register) were quite rotten. The oaken coffin, pitch-cloth, and 

 water, seem greatly to have contributed to the preservation of this body. His 

 coffin was found very sound. 



Mr, Tripe to Dr. Huxliam. 

 Mr. Tripe here observes that on dissecting the corpse, and examining the in- 

 ternal parts, he found them answerable to the external, most of them nearly in a 

 natural state, but little altered or different from the condition of a living body. 



XXXVJll. Extract of a Letter from Professor Euler, of Berlin, to the Rev. 

 Mr. Caspar fVetstein, Chaplain to Her Royal Highness the Princess Dowager 

 of JVales. p. 263. 



You have doubtless heard that the Academy at St. Petersburg have fixed a 

 prize of 1 00 ducats, which they will give every year to him who shall give the 

 best answer to the question that shall be proposed ; and for the first time they 

 have proposed this question : 



" Whether the theory of Sir Isaac Newton is sufficient to explain all the irre- 

 gularities which are found in the motion of the moon ?" 



This question is of the last importance ; and I must own, that till now I al- 

 ways believed, that this theory did not agree with the motion of the apogee of 

 the moon. Mr. Clairaut was of the same opinion ; but he has publicly re- 

 tracted it, by declaring that the motion of the apogee is not contrary to the 

 Newtonian theory. On this occasion I have renewed my inquiries on this affair; 

 and, after most tedious calculations, I have at length found to my satisfaction, 

 that Mr. Clairaut was in the right, and that this theory is entirely sufficient to 

 explain the motion of the apogee of the moon. As this inquiry is of the greatest 

 difficulty, and as those who hitherto pretended to have proved this nice agree- 

 ment of the theory with the truth, have been much deceived, it is to Mr. Clai- 

 raut that we are obliged for this important discovery, which gives quite a new 

 lustre to the theory of the great Newton : and it is but now that we can expect 

 good astronomical tables of the moon. 



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