Objections of M. Le La lande* 
but ns my defign, on the prefen: occafion, is to write and to 
explain matters in a popular way , rather than to aftronorners, 
it will be proper to afiift the conceptions of thefe who are but 
little verfed in mathematical principles by inch diagrams as 
will (hew things in their juft proportions. Any reader, there- 
fore, who pleales, by turning to fig. 3. may lee how very imall 
a portion of the fun’s body is made up of the luminous matter 
when fuppofed every where 3967 Englifh miles deep. Fig. 3. 
A is a feftion of a lpot of 5 o " diameter fituated in the deepeft 
part of this refplendent fubftance. 
For my own amufement I have purfued this fubjedl further 
in the w r ay of ocular proof, by a model of the fun and of the 
fpots upon his body according to their proper dimenfions. This 1 
put into a convenient wooden frame, and viewed it afar off when 
fet upon a ftand, whilft the globe was turned flowlv round, and 
lub tended an angle at the telefcope equal to the apparent diameter 
of the fun. By an objeft-glafs micrometer 1 then took the 
diftances from the limb when the fartheft umbrae of different 
fpots vanilhed, as alio the diftances of the nuclei juft when 
difappearing. The apparent fubtenfe of the umbra next the 
limb was alfo meal'ured in this way, together with the vifible 
extenfion of (bine great fpots within the dilk, when the ex- 
treme limits of the neareft umbra coincided with the limb. In 
all thefe experiments the effect was very ftriking, and the phe- 
nomena remarkably confonant to calculation, and to what 1 
have often feen upon the real fun in the heavens. 
The globe I got made confifts within of two ftrong hol- 
low hemifpheres, formed by parting Hips of paper upon 
a well-turned ball of wood, and afterwards fattened together 
upon an iron axis in the way commonly practified. Over 
this were repeatedly laid coats of Spanifh white and glue, ap- 
plied when in a thick pafte, till at length this outward fhell 
X 2 became 
