NEW PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY.-The "Victoria Institute," of which we have received a prospectus, has for its object to "defend revealed truth from the oppositions of science, falsely so called. Its duty will be to enter upon the controversies of the day, and to give a hearing and encouragement to all who are willing to battle with the oppositions of science, in order to reduce its pretensions to their real value." Mr. H. B. Owen, 29 Gower Street, Bedford Square, will receive names of those desirous of joining the society. [Would not a better name be the Anti-Scientific Society? Nevertheless, a well-organised opposition always does good, and neither true science nor religion will suffer from free discussion.-ED.] ASTRONOMICAL REGISTER. LIST OF SUBSCRIBERS-Names received since our last number. Erck, Wentworth, Esq., LL.D., 27 Herbert Place, Dublin. We can in no case insert communications from correspondents with whose names and addresses we are unacquainted. Communications from Isaac Fletcher, E. Hopkins, "A Practical Man," and "E. J." are in type, but deferred for want of space. Other communications are also postponed. The Astronomical Register is intended to appear at the commencement of each THE MOON CONTROVERSY. TO THE EDITOR OF THE ASTRONOMICAL REGISTER. Sir, Suppose a globe moving close to, and inside a long rod bent into a circle, but that instead of presenting (as in the illustration in the February number) always the same side to the centre of its orbit, and different sides to any very distant point without, it now always presents the same surface or side to a very distant point without. We may draw the figure and the distant point, and place a dot on the globe on that circumference which is to face the distant point. Now let the rod or orbit be decreased gradually by any number of figures we like to draw, the globe always keeping the circumference with the dot on it to the distant point. At last let the circumference of the rod just contain the globe. Here we have no motion at all— certainly not rotation, else must the dotted circumference of the globe turn away from the distant point. It is also plain that if the rod were quite straight the motion would be progression only: no rotation can enter into the motion of this body in any stage. In the illustration in the February number no such law existed; the globe, on the first moment of its adopting a circular path began to present different surfaces to any distant point, taken without; and would still continue to do so when the rod was reduced to the size of the globe. With regard to 'Mathematicus'; let him draw more figures between figures 3 and 4, gradually reducing the rod; and if he really cannot see rotation, I am afraid I cannot help him. He should have noticed that the word I used was 'Rotation,' not in any way distinguishing between Axial and Radial. If it be asserted that every particle of a solid body, St. Paul's Cathedral, for instance, rotates on its own axis, and not on the axis of the body of which it forms a part, this leads to the following conclusion, viz. that Europe, Asia, Africa, and America, do not rotate on the earth's axis, but each on a separate axis of its own. But the earth rotates on her own axis, and Europe, Asia, Africa, and America, do not rotate on the earth's axis: (but each on a separate axis of its own.) Therefore the earth rotates on her axis, minus Europe, Asia, Africa, and America. Again, if it be said that it is not asserted that St. Paul's Cathedral, when considered a part of the earth, does not then rotate on the earth's axis; but that only when taken separately it is considered to rotate on its own axis. This however leads to what follows:-If St. Paul's rotates on its own axis, then Europe rotates on its own axis : but the earth rotates on its own axis, and Europe forms a part of the earth, and therefore Europe rotates on the earth's axis, together with the other portions of land and sea forming the complete earth: and also Europe has been proved to rotate on its own axis. And therefore Europe, which is the selfsame body with the selfsame motion, whether we choose to consider it a separate body or a part of the earth, has been proved to rotate on two axes, and these widely separate. THE Price 78. 6d., royal 8vo. cloth. HE ASTRONOMICAL OBSERVER: a Handbook for the Observatory and the Common Telescope. By W. A. DARBY, M.A., F. R. A. S., Rector of St Luke's, Manchester.-"A Work of great value to amateur observers." The Astronomer Royal. London: ROBERT HARDWICKE, 192, Piccadilly. The New Era in Astronomy. Second enlarged Edition, 8vo. Price 58. DOLPH'S 'SIMPLICITY OF THE CREATION'; Tides, &c.-"Your Theory seems simple and complete." Card. Wiseman. "A Theory... correct and conclusive in all its parts." Cath. Telegraph. "A book destined to become a standard authority in future." Tablet. "We hail with pleasure every new blow at the old idol, whose worship has become a superstition." Builder. ... BURNS; London. RICHARDSON; Derby, Dublin, London. The "Cause and Nature of the Phenomena termed the Solar Spots" are next considered. The energy arising from the transition of imponderable into ponderable matter will in part become the centrifugal or projectile force by which the torrents of matter (finally assuming the gaseous form) so produced are impelled through the denser envelopes of the sun, causing the spots and the other phenomena of ebullition of which the photosphere is the scene. The rotation of the sun acting upon these torrents issuing radially from its interior region-and probably from the surface of the solar globe disclosed in the true nuclei of the spots, or somewhat within that-by inflecting them towards the sun's equator as they rise, occasions the actual distribution of the spots which are their outbursts on the surface of the photosphere, in lines and belts parallel to the equator, their restriction in latitude to within a certain distance of it, and their absence, together with that of the faculæ, both in the equatorial and the polar regions of the sun. The entire assemblage of actions now under consideration appears to be closely analogous to that exhibited by a liquid boiling violently and incessantly from a heated surface below, the gaseous matter evolved at which becomes partly diffused through the liquid by adhesion or mixture, is partly disseminated through it in bubbles which collapse at various depths, and partly escapes by effervescence at its upper surface. In the actual case of the sun, torrents more or less permanent, consisting either of bubbles or of an un |