68 PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONSi [aNNO 1770. 



sun at once, if the horizontal parallax be Q", is 104666 xli,* because this is the 

 greatest number of such particles that would have room to lie at once on his 

 surface. And the same will be the greatest number of spherical vacuities made 

 by one emission. Many of these vacuities are no sooner made, than they are 

 filled up by the light that is coming to the sun from other systems, or returning 

 to him from the bodies of his own, or, perhaps with other matter which he may 

 receive in various emanations from the planets; for I strongly suspect that a per- 

 petual circulation of finer matter may subsist between all the large bodies of the 

 universe. The emission of light, however, is supposed so far to exceed the 

 whole supply, that in every second, over and above the vacuities that have been 

 filled up with adventitious matter, the foregoing number, 104666 xli, have been 

 formed that have received no such supply. The fluid matter of the sun-|- rushes 

 from all sides into these, and fills them up to its own level. The sun by this 

 means shrinks a little, and loses, once in every second, so much of its solid 

 content, as the solid contents of these vacuities amount to. 



I have found that the solid contents of 46606 xxxvi such vacuities are equal 

 to the sphere of one yard. J Therefore the solid contents of 104666 xli such 

 vacuities, are equal to 224335-i- times the sphere of one yard. And so much is 

 the sun's solid content diminished every second. The sphere of the earth is to 

 the sphere of one yard, as 27247031 xiv to l.§ Therefore the sphere of the 

 earth is to 224335-i^ times the sphere of one yard as 121456 xi to 1. Therefore 

 the sun loses an earth of its solid content in 121456 xi seconds, or 385130000 

 Egyptian years nearly. 



If the sun's parallax be Q", the solid content of the earth is -j-j-, j-x-s-ir of the 

 solid content of the sun. Therefore, in 385130000 Egyptian years, the sun 

 should lose , ^ , ; 4 ^0 o* ^"S solid content, and consequently in the same time the 

 diameter of the sun should lose ig^in - t, of its whole dimensions. And in the 

 same time the apparent diameter should lose the like part of its quantity, if the 

 distance between the earth and sun remained unaltered. The sun's mean appa- 

 rent diameter contains 1922 seconds. Therefore -jrr-hnro of the ©'s apparent 

 diameter, is , ,j'„ „ of one second very nearly. So inconsiderable would be the 

 whole dimiimtion of the sun's apparent diameter, that could arise from the waste 

 of his substance, in 385130000 Egyptian years. 



• The greatest number of particles that can issue from the sun at once, was reckoned in the In- 

 stant. Product. 1 324()7 xli : but then the O's parallax was reckoned only 8". — Grig. 

 • f I suppose the sun to be a fluid mass: by this hypothesis, I give the utmost force to Dr. Frank- 

 lin's objection .: for, the more perfectly the sun is fluid, the more suddenly will the vacuities be 

 filled up.— Orig. 



1 Vide Instant. Product, p. .'30. — Orig. 



% Ibid. p. 16.— Orig. 



