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A TREATISE

ON

ATTRACTIONS, LAPLACE'S FUNCTIONS,

AND THE

FIGURE OF THE EARTH.

Cambridge:

PRINTED BY C. J. CLAY, M. A.

AT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS.

ATTRACTIONS, LAPLACE'S FUNCTIONS,

AND THE

FIGURE OF THE EARTH.

BY

JOHN H. PRATT, M.A.

ARCHDEACON OF CALCUTTA,

LATE FELLOW OF GONVILLE AND CAIUS COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE, AND AUTHOR OF
"THE MATHEMATICAL PRINCIPLES OF MECHANICAL PHILOSOPHY."

Cambridge:

MACMILLAN AND CO.

AND 23, HENRIETTA STREET, COVENT GARDEN,

London.
1860.

[The right of Translation is reserved.]

183.c.38.

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PREFACE.

THIS Treatise is in part a republication of those portions of

my

work on Mechanical Philosophy which treat of Attractions, Laplace's Functions, and the Figure of the Earth.

I have frequently regretted having parted with the copyright of that work, as the leading object I had in view in first presenting it to the University has been entirely defeated since the transfer, by the appearance of separate treatises in its place instead of a new edition in one volume. Had I retained the work I should have published a third Edition of the whole in its original form, with the improvements which further reading and further thought would have suggested. My object in first publishing the work was, to comprise in one view and in one volume a complete course of Mechanical Philosophy, leading the student from elementary mechanical principles to the highest branches of the Mechanism of the Heavens. I conceived, that by the uniformity of the system which a single treatise could ensure, students might be assisted in reading higher in these subjects than they had been accustomed to do, without any additional amount of labour.

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