But it so happened that Picard shortly afterward executed more correctly a new measurement of a degree; this changed the estimated magnitude of the earth, and the distance of the moon, which was measured in earth-semidiameters.

Newton now renewed his computation, and, as I have related on a previous page, as it drew to a close, foreseeing that a coincidence was about to be established, was so much agitated that he was obliged to ask a friend to complete it.
The hypothesis was sustained.
A second instance will sufficiently illustrate the method under consideration.

It is presented by the chemical theory of phlogiston.
Stahl, the author of this theory, asserted that there is a principle of inflammability, to which he gave the name phlogiston, having the quality of uniting with substances.

Thus, when what we now term a metallic oxide was united to it, a metal was produced; and, if the phlogiston were withdrawn, the metal passed back into its earthy or oxidized state.

On this principle, then, the metals were compound bodies, earths combined with phlogiston.
SCIENCE AND ECCLESIASTICISM.