The Arctic Home in the Vedas c5.18

c5.18

The reliability of these elaborate calculations has, however, been questioned by astronomers and geologists alike. Sir Robert Ball, who supports Croll in every other respect, has himself refrained from making any astronomical calculations regarding the maximum value of the eccentricity of the earth's orbit, or the time when the last Glacial epoch should have occurred, or when the next would take place. "I cannot say," he observes, "when the last (Glacial epoch) took place, nor when the next may be expected. No one who is competent to deal with mathematical formulæ would venture on such predictions in the present state of our knowledge."¹ Prof. Newcomb of New York, another astronomer of repute, in his review of Dr. Croll's *Climate and Time*, has also pointed out how in the present state of astronomical knowledge it is impossible to place any reliance on the values of eccentricity computed for epochs, distant by millions of years, as the value of this eccentricity depends upon elements, many of which are uncertain, and this is especially the case when one has to deal with long geological eras. The only reply made by Dr Croll to this criticism is that his figures were correctly worked up from the values of the eccentricity according to the latest correction of Mr. Stockwell.¹ This, however, is hardly a satisfactory reply, inasmuch as Prof. Newcomb’s objection refers not to the correctness of the mathematical work, but to the impossibility of correctly ascertaining the very data from which the values of the eccentricity were obtained.