Astronomical and Nautical Collections, 439 



fieem to be a proof of the accuracy as well of the Tables as 

 of the Observations. 



[It may be added to these Remarks, that the accuracy of the compari- 

 son of the Solar Tables with the Greenwich Observations for 1S20, as 

 computed for the Board of Longitude, and published at the end of 

 Mr. South's paper, is confirmed by the computations lately printed by the 

 Astronomer Royal; the mean error of the tables being — 0*.195, according- 

 to the former comparison, and -0^203 according to the latter. Bou- 

 vard'6 corrections give a mean error of about +(y.05. Editor.] 



iii. Answer to some Remarks of Mr. Ivor y. Astr. Nachr. 

 No. 108. Translated at the particular request of Pro- 

 fessor Bessel. 

 I have been much surprised to find in the Philosophical 

 Magazine for April and May, 1826, an Essay of Mr. Ivory, 

 in which I am directly accused of having copied my Analysis 

 of the mode of computing geodetical measurements from the 

 Philosophical Magazine for July 1824. 



Mr. Ivory ought to have considered that it is very unusual 

 even to hint at so degrading an accusation, without having 

 the power of showing its truth : and I hope to be excused 

 for not undertaking to defend myself against an attack so 

 wholly unsupported by evidence. 



The dates of my three papers are December 1821 (A. N. 

 3), January 1822 (A. N. 6), and October 1825 (A. N. 86>. 

 I have never seen Mr. Ivory's paper of July 1824, and I 

 know nothing of its contents: nor have I seen the 41st num<^ 

 ber of the Journal of the Royal Institution. With respect 

 to my last paper, if it really contains what Mr. Ivory had 

 before published, I readily give up my claim to priority ; for 

 I have always thought that the date of printing alone should 

 •determine the right to any scientific property. 



But it is not so much the question to decide on this claim, 

 as to repel an unjust accusation : I am therefore compelled 

 to show the actual date of the researches in question. They 

 were in fact laid before my pupils in a course of public lec- 

 tures, delivered in the University of Konigsberg, in the win- 

 ter of 1821-2 ; and I have the pleasure of mentioning among 

 my audience the names of Argelander, Rosenberger, Scherk^ 

 Strehlke, and Klupsz, all of which are already known in 



