890 Transactions of the American Institute. 



I have taken the earth as " unit," I am of the opinion that the 

 diameter should be taken as .7853 -f or one quarter the circumference 

 of one diameter, and particularly this should be so, as the calculations 

 are all made in reference to motion. This gives a difference in the 

 diameter of the earth of between fifty-eight and fifty-nine miles, and 

 I think the last named sum (7853 -f) is the most accurate. 



Astronomers say that the moon's distance from us is a fraction less 

 than 239,000 miles, but theirs is only an approximation, and they 

 admit a liability to error equal to one or two thousand miles. And 

 again their measurement is from the center of the earth to the 

 center of the moon, and it is self-evident that our measurement as 

 first given includes the moon's whole diameter, and her atmosphere 

 which moves with her, and this being considered it will increase their 

 distance or diminish ours ten or twelve hundred miles, and astrono- 

 mers admit a possible error greater than that difference would show. 

 But if we admit an error in the diameter of the earth equal to that 

 above stated, we shall then approximate to the latest estimate of the 

 moon's distance by astronomers almost exactly. Now, which shall 

 we accept for the moon's distance ; the measurement of astronomers 

 with its liability to error of a couple thousand miles or so, or my 

 hypothesis, which, if true, gives the exact distance to a mile ? I think 

 the evidence is all in favor of the hypothesis, which makes the earth 

 to revolve about the sun on the value of the circumference of the 

 moon's orbit, this result being produced by the natural laws of motion, 

 and the attraction of magnetism (or gravitation, if you please to call 

 it such) with the universal law of precession to make motion continu- 

 ous, and not by any imaginary projectile force which does violence to 

 nature. 



The sun's distance from the earth was formerly considered to be 

 95,000,000 miles, some have said 96,000,000 ; here again astronomers 

 admitted a possible error of 1,000,000 or 2,000,000 of miles. La 

 Place thought it was within -^ of the truth. Of late, however, they 

 have come to the conclusion that the distance is much less, and, as 

 deduced from the angle of parallax, it has, by some, been stated a 

 fraction under 92,000,000, and I hear that much anxiety is felt to 

 ascertain the fact by observing the transit of Venus to happen in 

 1874. 



I determined the sun's distance by my Quadrature, published in 

 1851, to be 92,285,568 miles, such as, compose the earth's diameter 

 reckoned at 7,912 miles, and I wait the result of the coming observa- 

 tions of the transit without fear of contradiction. It was not until a 



