dr. Gregory's strictures on don Rodriguez. 249 



conclude, that they originated in the determination of the 

 French to u establish a new system of weights and measures." 



To the same end, apparently, tends the Don's assertion, that 

 " the Swedish Academy of Sciences, encouraged by the success 

 of the operations conducted in France, sent also three of its 

 members into Lapland to verify their former measurement." 

 For the natural tendency of this statement is to produce the Hisron of the 

 belief, that the recent operations of the Swedish philosophers New La P'an<* 

 were in humble imitation of the French, and that they were 

 undertaken for the purpose of verifying, or of correcting, their 

 own former admeasurement ; in both which respects the co- 

 louring given is widely different from the truth. The Lapland 

 measure in 1736 was not conducted by Swedish, but by French 

 academicians ; and the correction of it was proposed long be- 

 fore the French revolution. The following are the true cir- 

 cumstances of the case, as I received them from a learned 

 Swede. Melanderhielm, the venerable president of the Stock- 

 holm academy, had almost from his youth doubted the accuracy 

 of the operations of 1736, and sought anxiously for an oppor- 

 tunity of repeating them ; but waited many years before he 

 could avail himself of a favourable conjunctuie of circum- 

 stance, although latterly he had found in M. Svanbcrg, a young 

 man of great talent and activity, to conduct the operative part, 

 After hearing of the new measure of a degree by MM. 

 Ddambre and Mechain, he wrote to some of the French mathe- 

 maticians on the subject, but with no intention of soliciting 

 them to visit Lapland. Soon after this, Buonaparte, at the an;! of Bno- 

 siiggestion of the then national institute, wrote a letter per- J la, ^ r ^' s , ^'^ 

 sonaliy to the late king of Sweden, requesting permission for of Sweden, 

 some members of that body to proceed to Lapland, in order to 

 determine an arc of the meridian. That high-spirited young 

 monarch replied, that he would consult his own Academy of 

 Sciences at Stockholm, whether such an operation was desirable 

 for the interests of science j and if they were of that opinion, 

 he had no doubt he could find Swedish mathematicians com- 

 petent to the undertaking. Hence MM. Svanberg, Ofverlom, 

 Holmquisi, and Palander, were appointed to examine and re- 

 peat the measure of the French academicians ; and this is what 

 Don Rodriguez terms the expedition of three of the Sivedish 

 academicians " to Lapland to verify their former measurement." ■ 



Vol. XXXIV.— No. 159. S With 



