524 TRANS. ST. LOUIS ACAD. SCIENCE. 



deduced from the authenticity of classic eclipses, then it is to be 

 borne in mind that the possibility of expounding the fact is not yet 

 exhausted. The exploration of nature has not yet reached the end. 

 In the first place, it is well known that the comets accelerate, and 

 this phenomenon is put to account of the resistance of the ether. 

 Humboldt (Kosm. p. 406, Philad. ed.) presumes this fluidity to 

 move round the sun from west to east, and points us to the zodia- 

 cal light and to the evaporating tails of the comets. That ethereal 

 substance, of whatsoever nature it may be, opposes the motion 

 of all heavenly bodies of our system ; and hence, the moon, more 

 and more retarded, and consequently attracted, by the earth, must 

 gradually perform shorter revolutions. In this way, perhaps, the 

 aforesaid accelerating motions of the moon can be explained. 



The following results of the preceding researches are true : 



I. All eclipses in the Almagest, apart from the four later, 

 occured in other years than was formerly accepted bona Jide. 

 Their times and other minutiae are the result of Ptolemy's errone- 

 ous computations. Consequently, any theory of the lunar motions 

 deduced from Ptolemy's Babylonian eclipses must necessarily be 

 incorrect. 



The chronology of the other eclipses discussed in the premises 

 is true, because it is both based upon the reportsof intelligent and 

 honest eye-witnesses, and confirmed by infallible mathematical 

 facts. 



3. No Lunar Tables are to be considered correct as long as 

 they disagree with the most reliably ascertained eclipses of the 

 ancients, and as long as the former turn all total eclipses of the 

 classics into partial or annular ones, many small eclipses into 

 invisible ones, and according to which all eclipses coinciding 

 with sunrise, and those of which the hours are fixed by ancieat 

 authorities, preceded sunrise and the attested times. 



Catalogue of all Classic and other Eclipses discussed In the 

 premises. 



The following eclipses refer to astronomical and not to histori- 

 cal years before Christ. 



The added hours and minutes of the eclipses are according to 

 Paris time, wherever no local time is mentioned. 



