886 Transactions of the American Institute. 



March 22, 1872. 



Prof. S. D. Tillman in the chair; Robert Weir, Esq., Secretary. 



The Chairman introduced to the audience John A. Parker, Esq., 

 president of the Great Western (Marine) Insurance Company, who 

 read the following paper : 



No Projectile Force ln Nature. 



I propose to say a few words on the non-existence of projectile 

 forces, and to give some practical proofs of the theory advanced. 



It will be seen at once that if the universality of precession is the 

 cause of the continuance of motion in the heavenly bodies, it consti- 

 tutes the first established truth, which confirms a doubt of the exist- 

 ence of a, projectile force. Nature never wastes her powers by sup- 

 plying two forces where only one is necessary, and if we once admit 

 the existence of magnetic attraction (gravitation), to produce motion, 

 and the universal law of precession to make it continuous, we have 

 then accumulated all the powers that are necessary, and why should 

 anything more be required % 



The idea of a projectile force has its origin, no doubt, in our know- 

 ledge of the fact that our own earth, in her orbit round the sun, passes 

 over an amount of space many times greater than her revolutions on 

 her axis would measure, and at first sight a projectile' movement 

 appears to be an inevitable necessity, and to account for it rationally 

 has exercised the science, ingenuity, skill, and judgment of the best 

 minds which the world has afforded, in centuries past. I shall not 

 attempt to repeat what has been said or written on the subject ; it is 

 sufficient for our present reasoning to know that by no ingenuity of 

 skill have the believers in an active projectile force (and that belief 

 has, I think, been universal) ever been able to bring their theory 

 within the operation of any natural law known to exist. It is reason- 

 able to suppose that the laws of nature, seen in our own world, are 

 the laws of the universe, and we have no right to assume the exist- 

 ence anywhere of laws which are contrary to nature here. But then 

 comes the certain truth, that the earth does move through space, both 

 positively and relatively to other bodies, faster than her diurnal revolu- 

 tion on her axis would carry her, and how shall it be accounted for ? 



The result which all who have reasoned on the subject have finally 

 come to is, in substance, like this : They represent the Deity as occu- 

 pying some limited space, sitting on a vast throne, high and lifted 

 up, engaged in his work, as a man would work with his hands, 



