VOL. LIT.] PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. 5^3 



is about half an inch long, and -^ of an inch broad: the size of these joints 

 diminishes a little till you come to the last joint, which ends in a point. Each of 

 these joints is pointed at top, and being concave, embraces the lower convex part 

 of the next above it: these are likewise furnished on their concave side with 2 

 rows of suckers, clasping together; they secure their prey with these opposite 

 claws, or fingers. 



Views of this curious animal are found in the French engraving of their en- 

 crinus before-mentioned. 



hVlI, Remarks on a Passage of the Editor of the Connoissance des Mouve- 



ments Celestes, pour CAnnce I762. By Matthew Raper, Esq., F.R.S. 



p. 366. 



Sir Isaac Newton, in the 2d and 3d editions of his Principia, lib. iii, prop. I9, 

 has mentioned Norwood's measure of a degree on the meridian, as taken about 

 the year l635. The editor of the Connoissance des Mouvements Celestes pour 

 I'Annee 1762, p. 196, has the following passage. 



" On pretend aussi en Angleterre, que des I'annee 1636, Norwood avoit 

 trouve le degre par des mesures prises entre Londres et Yorck de 57300, ou de 

 57400 toises; resultat, qui se trouveroit d'une exactitude bien singuliere pource 

 tems la: mais un fait plus authentique c'est que Newton en 1666 jettant les pre- 

 miers fondemens de son admirable systeme de la gravitation, n'avoit jamais oiii 

 parler des mesures de Norwood, et supposoit, avec tous les pilotes de son tems, 

 le degre de 60 milles Anglois, qui font 49200 toises." 



Here this writer asserts, that Sir Isaac Newton had never. heard of Norwood's 

 measure in 1 ^Q^, of which he can bring no proof, and would thence insinuate 

 that probably there never was such a one, or at least not so early as is pretended. 

 In either case. Sir Isaac, in the proposition above-mentioned, must have posi- 

 tively asserted what he did not know to be true, or knowingly have published a 

 falsehood. 



Norwood's book is intitled. The Seaman's Practice, containing a fundamental 

 Problem in Navigation, experimentally verified, namely, touching the Compass 

 of the Earth and Sea, and the Quantity of a Degree in our English Measures, 

 &c. By Richard Norwood, Reader in the Mathematics. He tells us, that 

 having observed the latitude of London in the year l633, and that of York in 

 1635, he measured the distance of the two cities, in his return from York to 

 London; and the account he gives of his measurement is so clear and in- 

 genuous, that the reader will find no cause to doubt either his abilities or his 

 fidelity. 



The book was first published in the year l636, and has since gone through 

 many editions, the 8th being printed in 1668. The title above-mentioned is 



VOL. XI. 4 G 



