150 THE TOP. 
earlier periods, and that on a careful analysis this story 
touches our most recent science in more than thirty im- 
portant points, and that each statement is in its proper 
order, the human mind refuses to attribute the coinci- 
dences to anything less than absolute knowledge on the 
part of the author of the account. 
One other thought and I am done. It was science 
that needed to be reconciled with Genesis. For thou- 
sands of years, it was far enough away, but at last, un- 
wittingly it is true, it is a witness to the divine origin of 
this account. 
FEBRUARY 24, 1886—FORTY-FIFTH REGULAR MEETING. 
Charles B. Warring, Ph.D., chairman, presiding. 
The following paper was read : 
THE TOP. 
A PAPER SUPPLEMENTARY TO ONE READ BEFORE THE SECTION IN 1885 
ON GYRATING BODIES. 
BY CHARLES B. WARRING, Ph.D. 
In my paper on gyrating bodies last winter, I said that 
a top when revolving on a hard, smooth surface, would 
rise from an oblique toa vertical position, if its ‘‘point”’ 
was of sensible size, or if it, the point, was ‘‘ out of 
centre.”’ 
This experience is socommon that no dispute as to 
the fact is possible, the only question is as to the reason 
why. In my paper I offered what seemed to me the 
true explanation, and summed up as follows: The 
rising of a top is due indirectly to its traveling, or per- 
haps it would be better to say: If the ‘‘ point”’ cannot 
travel, 7. e., change its position, the top cannot rise to a 
vertical. Mr. Blish, of Niles, Mich., writes that this 
cannot be true, for he caused a top with a roundish 
‘‘point’’ to revolve in a small, cup-like depression, and 
34 
