560 



KANSAS CITY REVIEW OF SCIENCE. 



APPARENT ELEMENTS OF THE RING. 



Outer Major Axis 41.4", Minor Axis 12.9". 



Inclination of northern Semi-Minor Axis to circle of declination from North 

 to East, 16.8'. 



Elevation of the earth above the plane of the Ring, 18° 13. i'; of the Sun, 

 20° 10.9'. 



Earth's longitude from Saturn counted on plane of ring from the Ring's - 

 ascending node on Equator, 87° 45.7'; Ecliptic 45° 01.6'. 



URANUS. 



Declination N. M. T. of Meridian Transits 

 5° 16' 4h. 35m. A. M. 



5 32 2 31 



NEPTUNE. 



Declination N. M. T. of Meridian Transit.. 

 14° 18' 8h. 05m. P. M. 



14 17 6 03 



GALILEO AND CURRENT MYTHS. 



At the St. Louis University, November 15th, Rev. H. Calmer, S. J., took 

 up another controverted point of history and discussed it before the post-grad- 

 uates. The lecture was on Galileo, and another on the same subject will be de- 

 livered by the Reverend Father. He began with Von Gebler's statement : 



As we study Galileo's connection with the Inquisition critically, we must do 

 way with "the current myths." Then he continued: We might have supposed 

 that after M. de I'Epinois, in 1867, published from the celebrated Vatican MSS. 

 the entire process of his trial and nominal imprisonment, these myths would have 

 ceased circulating. The blinding of Gahleo is a creation of the lively popular mind. 

 The fable may have taken rise from the subsequent loss of his sight. The assum- 

 ed exclamation " E ptir si muove" is legendary. No modern historian of note 

 gives it any credit. Nor did he recant, clad in the "hair shirt." The official 

 document, although it goes very much into detail as to the way in which the oath 

 was performed, says nothing of the shirt, and neither should authors have said 

 anything about it. 



Moreover, one glance at the truest historical resource for the famous trial — 

 the official dispatches of Niccolini to Cioli — would convince any one that Galileo 

 spent altogether only twenty-two days, not in a prison cell with grated windows, 

 but in the handsome and commodious apartment of an official of the Inquisition. 

 Was he tortured by the Inquisition? "Those who undertake to accuse the In- 

 quisition on this point are forced to have recourse to fiction," says Von Reumont, 

 and with him agree Lord Brougham, Biot, Von Gebler, and other authors worthy 

 of trust. The expression, "examen rigorosum," found in the decree, proves a 



