J^ew Method of determining the Longitude. 107 



Art. XIX. — JVotice of " The Kew Method of Determining 

 the Longitude by the Culmination of the Moon and 

 Stars : Being a Paper read before the Astronomical So- 

 ciety of London. To which are nozo added an Appendix, 

 and a List of Stars, applicable to the purpose for the year 

 1825. By Francis Baity, Esq. F. R. S. and L. S.'^ — 

 Quarto, pp. 48. London, 1824. — By Rev. Edwarp 

 Hitchcock. 



There is probably no science whose practical applica- 

 tion (to say nothing of the theory) has in it so much of 

 grandeur and sublime interest as astronomy. The intense 

 delight experienced by the real amateur, as he sees through 

 his telescope the first contact of the limbs of the sun and 

 moon in a solar eclipse, or of a star and the moon in an 

 occultation, or of a planet and the sun in a transit, is of such 

 a sui generis character, that, though not unfrequently felt, 

 it is not easily described. And when the calculator sits 

 down to apply the principles of spherics to his observa- 

 tions, he finds his mind pleasantly sustained through the 

 most laborious processes, by a peculiar enthusiasm, that 

 makes him forget the dryness of the mere arithmetic that 

 is concerned. 



The importance of the subject and the munificent re- 

 wards offered by some of the European governments, have 

 served, no doubt, very much to sharpen the ingenuity and 

 zeal of astronomers in that particular application of their 

 science that relates to finding the longitude of places on the 

 earth. And their success in overcoming the formidable 

 difficulties that encumbered the subject, in perfecting the 

 modes of observation, and simplifying the calculations, 

 has long ago excited the highest admiration and the grati- 

 tude of seamen.* For a few years past, however, we be- 

 lieve the subject has not excited so much interest. We 

 must certainly form this conclusion, if we judge from the 



* In this coDnexion we are happy to refer to the indefatigable and emi- 

 nently successful exertions of our countryman Hon. N. Bowditch. We 

 are bold to assert that no man living has done so much as he for the safety 

 and convenience of the navigator. And he has done as much for astrono- 

 mers by his translations and elucidations of the " Mccanique Celeste." 

 But that work is suffered to lie in manuscript, in this liberal country, for 

 want of patronage 1 



