Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 26.djvu/61

Rh alterations in the position of tbe axis and in the places of the poles—changes certainly very minute. The only question is, Whether they are so minute as to defy detection. It is easy to see that any such displacements of the earth's axis will be indicated by changes in the latitudes of our observatories. If, for instance, the pole were moved a hundred feet from its present position, toward the Continent of Europe, the latitudes of European observatories would be increased about one second, while in Asia and America the effects would be trifling. The only observational evidence of such movements of the pole, which thus far amounts to anything, is found in the results obtained by Nyren in reducing the determinations of the latitude of Pulkowa, made with the great vertical circle, during the last twenty-five years. They seem to show a slow, steady diminution of the latitude of this observatory, amounting to about a second in a century; as if the north pole were drifting away, and increasing its distance from Pulkowa at the rate of about one foot a year. The Greenwich and Paris observations do not show any such result; but they are not conclusive, on account of the difference of longitude, to say nothing of their inferior precision.

The question is certainly a doubtful one; but it is considered of so much importance that, at the meeting of the International Geodetic Association in Rome last year, a resolution was adopted recommending observations specially designed to settle it. The plan of Signor Fergola, who introduced the resolution, is to select pairs of stations, having nearly the same latitude, but differing widely in longitude, and to determine the difference of their latitudes by observations of the same set of stars, observed with similar instruments, in the same manner, and reduced by the same methods and formulæ. So far as possible, the same observers are to be retained through a series of years, and are frequently to exchange stations when practicable, so as to eliminate personal equations. The main difficulty of the problem lies, of course, in the minuteness of the effect to be detected; and the only hope of success lies in the most scrupulous care and precision in all the operations involved.

Other problems, relating to the rigidity of the earth and its internal constitution and temperature, have, indeed, astronomical bearings, and may be reached to some extent by astronomical methods and considerations; but they lie on the border of our science, and time forbids anything more than their mere mention here.

If we consider next the problems set us by the Moon, we find them numerous, important, and difficult. A portion of them are purely mathematical, relating to her orbital motion; while others are physical, and have to do with her surface, atmosphere, heat, etc. As has been already intimated, the lunar theory is not in a satisfactory state. I do not mean, of course, that the moon's deviations from the predicted path are gross and palpable—such, for instance, as could be perceived