Fy RETEST a eT ee 
Am Si 
AMERICAN 
JOURNAL OF SCIENCE AND ARTS. 
[SECOND SERIES.} 
Axrt, XV.—On the Velocity of Light and the Sun’s Distance; by 
Prof. JoserH Loverine, of Harvard College. 
Foucav.t’s recent experiment on the velocity of light, though 
. of a less popular character than his celebrated pendulum exper- 
y 
In the circle of the sciences, the centre may be placed any- 
where and the cireumference will be everywhere: such is the 
mutual dependence of each upon all the rest. After the science 
_ Of optics has furnished astronomy with the teléscope, the astron- 
omer discovers with it the satellites of Jupiter and the aberra- 
tion of light, and with the help of these phenomena assigns the 
value of the velocity of light, and thus oss to optics the debt 
incurred by his own special science. Now, for the first time, 
the science of optics has relinquished the guardianship of astron- 
. omy; ascertained by direct experiment one of its own funda- 
mental data; and thereb ibly, put astronomy under a new 
obligation, to be candid ie with interest, hereafter. 
Let us glance first at the two astronomical methods of meas- 
uring the velocity of light. While the senses of touch and taste 
ouR. Sct.—Seconp Serres, Vo. XXXVI, No. 107.—Sepr., 1863. " 
