"It is manifest, however, that if the 427-day period exists, its effect ought to appear distinctly in declination-measurements of such high degree of excellence as these presumably were, and, as I hope satisfactorily to show, actually are. When this variation is taken into account the observations will unquestionably vindicate the high expectations entertained with regard to them by the accomplished and skilful astronomers who designed and carried them out." [Sidenote: Direction of revolution of Pole.] [Sidenote: Example of results.] From this general account I am excluding technical details and figures, and unfortunately a great deal is thereby lost. We lose the sense of conviction which the long rows of accordant figures force upon us, and we lose the opportunities of admiring both the astonishing amount of work done and the beautiful way in which the material is handled by a master. But I am tempted to give one very small illustration of the numerical results from near the end of the paper. After discussing the Washington results, and amply fulfilling the promise made in the preceding extract, Mr. Chandler compares them with the Pulkowa results, and shows that the Earth's Pole must be revolving from west to east, and not from east to west. And then he writes down a simple formula representing this motion, and compares his formula with the observations. He gives the results in seconds of arc, but for the benefit of those not familiar with astronomical measurements we may readily convert these into feet; and in the following tables are shown the distances of the Earth's Pole _in feet_ from its average position,[6] as observed at Washington and at Pulkowa, and the same distances calculated according to the formula which Mr. Chandler was able to write down at this early stage. The signs + and - of course indicate opposite directions of displacement:-- WASHINGTON. _Deviation of Pole._ +-------------------------------------+ | Date. | Observed.| Formula. | |-------------------------------------| | 1864, Dec. 28 | -28 feet | -23 feet | | 1865, Mar. 19 | - 1 " | -12 " | | " June 1 | +15 " | +12 " | | " Aug. 11 | +22 " | +23 " | | " Oct. 9 | +11 " | +15 " | | " Dec. 13 | -17 " | - 6 " | +-------------------------------------+ PULKOWA. _Deviation of Pole._ +-------------------------------------+ | Date. | Observed.| Formula. | |-------------------------------------| | 1865, July 25 | -18 feet | -12 feet | | " Sept. 9 | + 3 " | + 3 " | | " Nov. 22 | +26 " | +22 " | | 1866, Feb. 22 | +18 " | +13 " | | " June 4 | -11 " | -18 " | | " July 17 | -16 " | -23 " | +-------------------------------------+