generally accepted seems to have been a writer otherwise unknown
in science--Thomas Wright, of Durham, England. He is said to have
published a book on the theory of the universe, about 1750. It
does not appear that this work was of a very scientific character,
and it was, perhaps, too much in the nature of a speculation to
excite notice in scientific circles. One of the curious features
of the history is that it was Kant who first cited Wright's
theory, pointed out its accordance with the appearance of the
Milky Way, and showed its general reasonableness. But, at the time
in question, the work of the philosopher of Konigsberg seems to
have excited no more notice among his scientific contemporaries
than that of Wright.

Kant's fame as a speculative philosopher has so eclipsed his
scientific work that the latter has but recently been appraised at
its true value. He was the originator of views which, though
defective in detail, embodied a remarkable number of the results
of recent research on the structure and form of the universe, and
the changes taking place in it. The most curious illustration of
the way in which he arrived at a correct conclusion by defective
reasoning is found in his anticipation of the modern theory of a
constant retardation of the velocity with which the earth revolves
on its axis. He conceived that this effect must result from the
force exerted by the tidal wave, as moving towards the west it
strikes the eastern coasts of Asia and America. An opposite
conclusion was reached by Laplace, who showed that the effect of
this force was neutralized by forces producing the wave and acting
in the opposite direction. And yet, nearly a century later, it was
shown that while Laplace was quite correct as regards the general
principles involved, the friction of the moving water must prevent