Page:Proceedings of the Royal Society of London Vol 1.djvu/223

Rh stated by Herodotus to have been the practice in embalming human bodies, that the stomach and intestines were not removed, as upon examining the interior parts of the lastamentioned Ibis, Mr. Pearson met with a soft spongy substance, containing several scarabaei in an imperfect state. These, he supposes, had been taken as the food of the bird, and were not digested at the time of its death. He also observes, that as larvae of dermestides and other insects have been detected among the dust and bones of the mummy of an lbis, it may be presumed that this bird was not always in a fresh state at the time when it was embalmed.

Notwithstanding the variety of extraordinary phenomena already observed respecting the planet Saturn, there remains,. Dr. Herschel says, a singularity which distinguishes the ﬁgure of Saturn from that of all the other planets.

He had, in the year 1776, observed that the body of Saturn was not exactly round, and had found in the year 1781 that it was ﬂat- tened at the pol, at least as much as Jupiter. In the year 1789 he measured the equatorial and polar diameters, and supposing there could be no other particularity in the ﬁgure of the planet, ascribed a certain irregularity he perceived in other parts of the body, to the interference of the ring.

Dr. Herschel now relates a series of observations made in the months of April, May, and June, of the present year, of which the following are the most remarkable.

April 12.—The ﬂattening of the polar regions appeared not so gradual as in Jupiter, and seemed not to begin till at a high latitude.

April 18.—The situation of the four points of the greatest curvature was measured with Dr. Herschel’s angular micrometer, power 527. Their latitude was found to be 46° 38’ ; but as neither of the cross wires could be in the parallel, no great accuracy, Dr. Herschel says, could be expected.

April 19.—Ten-feet reﬂector, power 400. The ﬁgure of Saturn was somewhat like a parallelogram, with the four comers rounded off deeply. A measure of the position of the four points of the greatest curvature, taken this night, gave their latitude 45° 44"5.

May the 5th, 12th, and 13th.—Ten-feet reﬂector. with different powers. Jupiter and Saturn were viewed alternately, and compared. A greater curvature was evident at the polar and equatorial regions of Jupiter than at those regions in Saturn. These alternate observations were many times repeated, and the oftener the planets were compared, the more striking appeared the difference in their shape.

May 26.—Ten-feet reﬂector, power 400. The difference in the three diameters of Saturn was evident without measurement. That which passes through the points of the greatest curvature being the