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THE DISTANCE OF THE SUN FROM THE EARTH

INCREASING.—The German journals have given

some tables which prove that the distance be­

tween the earth and the sun is increasing annual­

ly, and argue from it that the increasing humidity

of our summers and the loss of fertility by the

earth, are to be attributed solely to this circum­

stance.

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In the course of six thousand years from the

present time, they assume that the distance will

be so great that only an eighth part of the warmth

we now enjoy from the sun will be communicated

to the earth, and it will then be covered with

eternal ice in the same manner as we now see the

plains of the north, where the elephant formerly

lived, and have neither spring nor autumn.

No credit has heretofore bean given to tra­

ditions of the ancient Egyptians and Chinese,

according to which these people formerly said

the sun's disc was almost four times as large as

we now see it, for they estimated the apparent

diameter of the sun as double of what it is seen

in bur day. If, however, we pay attention to the

continued dimunition of the apparent diameter

of the sun, according to the best observation of

several centuries, we must suppose that the an­

cients were not mistaken in the estimates they

have transmitted to us.