Astronomical and Nautical Collections. 



123 



The numbers inclosed within parentheses are derived from 

 an empirical interpolation. 



If we compare this table with that which was published 

 in the Connaissance des Tems for 1812, and thence in the 

 Philosophical Magazine for February 1816, we shall be dis- 

 posed to admire the perseverance of Mr. Laplace and Mr. 

 Bouvard, in still adhering to the very inartificial mode of 

 calculation which was first employed by Dr. Young in this 

 country, but rejected by him as soon as he had discovered a 

 more correct, though an equally laborious method of solving 

 the problem. 



The calculations of Dr. Young and of Mr. Ivory, as pub- 

 lished in the Supplement of the Encylopaedia, articles Cohe- 

 sion, and Fluids, are completely independent of each other, 

 and their errors appear in general to be of an opposite cha- 

 racter ; the greatest difference of the results, for the depres- 

 sion, is .00031, or less than the three-thousandth of an inch, 

 while the approximation of Mr. Bouvard differs from both 



