Daily National Intelligencer

New theory of the Motions of the Planetary System.—A curious commentary, or rather an attack upon the received system of the planetary motions, has recently been published, in a small pamphlet, by captain Burney, which is likely to excite the attention of the scientific world, and may lead to the discovery of very unexpected astronomical facts. The author deduces the motion of the whole of our system from the progressive motion of the sun itself; a quality which he says, must be equally possessed by all the heavenly bodies, resulting from the universally acknowledged laws of gravitation. He argues, a priori, that, from progressive motion, rotation is produced, & a posteriori, that a body in free space, having rotation around its own axis, is a clear indication of its being in progressive movement. This he corroborates by the general belief now entertained, that our sun and planets are advancing towards the constellation Hercules. The opinion, that the sun has progressive motion, was not entertained till long after its rotary motion was discovered. Capt. B. states his conviction, that if, from the discovery of the sun's rotation, and the acknowledged universality of gravity, its progression had been inferred, when Kepler first suggested that the planets moved around the sun by means of its atmosphere, the system of this philosopher would have obtained immediate and lasting credit, and that the hypothesis of these bodies being continued in motion by an original projectile impulse, would not have been resorted to in accounting for the phenomena of their motion—Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine.