Dr. Wilson’s Anfwer , &c. 145 
oi the Philofophical I ran faction 3, as being the only one where 
an appeal can be made equally general and extenfive. 
It has been my aim to draw up the paper, which at this 
time I take the liberty of trail fmitting, with that freedom 
which the important in te reft of truth demands, and to ob- 
serve at the fame time thofe rules of decorum, of which too it 
becomes philofophers, of all other men, to fet the example. 
Give me leave, therefore, to requefh, as a very particular 
favour, that you wifi be lo good as to communicate the inclofed 
to your colleagues in the Council of the Royal Society ; as alfo 
this letter, in which I with to exprefs the mold unreferved 
deference to your and their opinions and determination. 
I am, &c\ 
mac fas. lake Obfervatory, April 18, 1782. 
IN the fir ft part of my paper, published in the Philofophical 
Tran factions for 1774, I have explained how, from the lucky 
accident of feeing the great folar fpot of November 17 69, in a 
certain critical fituation upon the dilk, its real nature was ob- 
truded on my thoughts by a train of appearances the mold ob- 
vious and unequivocal. The reader may there alio fee how, 
from phenomena perfectly fimilar in fpots of the ufual fize, 1 
was led to a general conclufon, and to believe that all fpots, 
fmall as well as great, which conlift of a dark nucleus, and 
furrounding umbra, are excavations in the luminous matter of 
the fun. 
Before this time no opinions had been entertained of any 
third dimenfion belonging to the lpots, but what agreed to the 
conception of their being fomething material extending more 
Vol. LXXIII. U 
or 
