t 5*7 1 
XXII. An improved Solution of a Problem in physical Astro - 
nomy ; by zvhicb, swiftly converging Series are obtained, which 
are useful in computing the Perturbations of the Motions of 
the Earth, Mars, and Venus, by their mutual Attraction. To 
which is added an Appendix, containing an easy Method of 
obtaining the Sums of many slowly converging Series which 
arise in taking the Fluents of binomial Surds, &c. By the 
Rev. John Hellins, F.R. S. Vicar of Potter s Pury, in North - 
amptonshire. In a Letter to the Rev. Nevil Maskelyne, D. D* 
F. R. S. and Astronomer RoyaL 
Read June 28, 1798. 
REVEREND SIR, Potter’s Pury, April 17, 1797. 
Such is the subject of the inclosed paper, and such the repu- 
tation for skill and industry, which the many valuable papers 
you have communicated to the Royal Society, and your other 
learned works, have justly procured to you, that it could not 
with more propriety he submitted to the judgment of any other 
person than yourself, even if the writer of it were a stranger 
to you. 
But there are circumstances which render my presenting it 
to you, in some measure, a duty. I had the advantage of being, 
for some years, your Assistant in the Royal Observatory at 
Greenwich ; during which time, you made the important obser- 
vations on the mountain Schehallien, in Scotland, which afford 
