- 380 
I have thus given you our morning's 
hiftory ; and can only fay, “* meritis ex- 
pendite caufam.” I will-venture one 
hint, on the fuppofition of the venerable 
Newton's being fhorn of his honours by 
this bold tonfor, and conclude.—Mira- 
beau was placed in the pantheon of wor- 
thies, at Paris; but afterwards, on the 
difcovery of ‘demerit, removed, to make 
room for Marat :—fhould not the ftatue 
of Sir Ifaac be removed alfe from Weftt- 
minfter Abbey, and that of his rival be 
fubftituted in its place, with this infcrip- 
tion underneath? 
God faid, let Martin be, and all was 
light! I am, Sir, &c. 
S, A: 
SE 
To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. 
SIR. 
A® account would very much oblige, 
either from Dr. MITCHEL of Phi- 
Jadelphia, or the correfpondent who com- 
municated his letter, of the PpoTasH 
cakes there mentioned, and the manner of 
making them.. 
None of the contads of MERCURY, in 
-pafling over the stzn’s DISK, were obferv- 
ed here on the 7th, on account of the al- 
moft continual cloudinefs of the fky. He 
was obferved occafionally, during very 
thort intervals of a clear fky, from about 
the middle of the TRANSIT to near the 
end. I remain 
Lrofton, near Bury, Yours &c. 
17 May, 1799. Care. Lorrr. 
Inftead of ** neceffary,”” in my former let- 
ter, (p. 267) be fo good to read ¢ unneceffary.” 

To the Editor of the Monthl, Magazine. 
SIR, 
mee correfpondents, in feveral num- 
4 bers lately of your ufeful mifcel- 
fany, have very commendably employed 
themfelves in amufing and editying the 
publicon the curious {peculation {tartedby 
the aftronomer LALANDE (in the Num- 
ber for Nov. p. 328), concerning the fall 
ot heavy bodies from great heights; but 
fome of them have much miftaken the na- 
ture of the experiment, and the calcula- 
tion from theory. LALANDE mentions 
the refult of the experiment, as communi- 
cated by his correipondent at Boulogne, 
in Picardy. He {ays the body was drop- 
ped from the top of a tower, of 247 feet 
in height; that the body fell 8 lines to 
the ealtward of. the tower’s bottom, or of 
the plumb line; and that theor gives 
only 5 lines tor the quantity that ought 
Experiment on falling Bodies. 
[June 
to be. He rightly adds, that this experi- 
ment is very difficult to make, as indeed 
it muft be, from the very delicate nature 
of it. We muft fuppofe that it was often 
repeated, and that the 87 lines is a medium 
among all the refults. It is to be wifhed, - 
however, that the duration of the fall had 
alfo been accurately taken, and given us, 
along with the other number in the expe- 
riment. 
Then comes your other correfpondent, 
T.P. from Bath (Number for Feb. p. 26), 
who quite miftakes the nature of the ex- 
periment, and thence fets down a coliec- 
tion of crude and erroneous: affertions, © 
quite befide the purpofe. If the earth 
have a rotation on its axis from weit to 
eaft, then the body muft fall to the eaft- 
ward of the foot of the tower, not to the 
weit, as he fancies; and if by experiment 
the body is found te fall eaftward from 
the tower, this will prove the motion of 
the earth, as LALANDE obferves, and it 
muft revolve from weft to eaft ; fuppofing 
the body not fenfibly impeded in its fall 
by the refiftance of the air. For, the body 
can only fall ftraight down in the perpen- 
dicular direction, when the earth has no 
diurnal rotation. When the earth has a 
motion, then the body is aéted on by two 
forces ; that of gravity, in the perpendi- 
cular direction, and that of the earth’s 
motion, in a horizontal direction from the 
top of the tower ; in which cafe it is well 
known, that the real path of the body is 
in an oblique direction ; from whence it 
happens, that the body would fall juft at 
the foot of the tower, if the tower moved 
with a parallel mo- 
tion, from AB to & 
DE ; but, by reafon A 
of the circular rota- 
tion, the top of the 
tower moves fafter 
than the bottom, the 
former having re- 
volved through BD, 
whilethe latter moves 
only through A F, 
and the tower having come into the pofi- 
tion DF, when the body falls at the 
point E, by the diftance EF before, or ~ 
eaftward, of the tower: 
Next, in the Number for March, p. 96. 
W. S. of Derby, with a proper idea of 
the experiment, very neatly and nicely 
explains the nature of it; and in a 
few words correéts the crude ideas of 
AR es 
Laftly, in the Number for May, p. 2725 . 
Edmontontenfis, feeming tobe much pleated — 
with the expianation of W, §. inftitutes a 
calculation 
