PREFACE

Summary

THE papers here collected together treat of the figure and of the movement of an actual or an ideal planet or satellite. I have failed to devise a short title for this volume which should describe exactly the scope of the subjects considered, and the title on the back of the book can only be held to apply strictly to three-quarters of the whole.

The first three papers fall somewhat further outside the proper meaning of the abridged title than do any of the others, for they are devoted to the mathematical solution of a geological problem. The second paper is indeed only a short note on a controversy long since dead; and the third is of little value.

The discussion of the amount of the possible changes in the position of the earth's axis of rotation, resulting from subsidences and upheavals, has some interest, but the conclusions arrived at in my paper are absolutely inconsistent with the sensational speculations as to the causes and effects of the glacial period which some geologists have permitted themselves to make.

At the end of this first paper there will be found an appendix containing an independent investigation by Lord Kelvin of the subject under discussion. He was one of the referees appointed by the Royal Society to report upon my paper, and he seemed to find that on these occasions the quickest way of coming to a decision was to talk over the subject with the author himself—at least this was frequently so as regards myself.