Afeafure of the Aferidlan In France^ tic. 3 1 7 



wViich we live. Accordingly, the Academy of Sciences, which, from Its firft eftablifhment, 

 had fixed its attention upon the experiments of Huyghens on the fimple pendulum, did not fail 

 to direiS the meditations of men of fcience to the uniformity and invariability of meafures. 

 That learned body was aware of the great importance of this objeft : the wifties of the ma- 

 thematical world were well known to them in this refpedt, and they beheld one of their num- 

 ber, the celebrated Condamine, employ his talents with the greateft zeal, in deftroying the 

 obje<51:ions which ignorance and prejudice did not ceafe at that lime, any more than at prefent, 

 to oppofe againft its eftablifhment*. This academy did not fail to feize the moment when 

 the people of France began to occupy themfelves in their political and focial regeneration to 

 refume this interefting fubje£t, the execution of which feemed to have waited till the period, 

 when the impulfe given to the fpirits of men, induced them eagerly to feize every thing which 

 could tend to the public good ; and when the exifting circumftances permitted them to attend 

 them without conftraint, and with the profpeft of fuccefs. When confulted by the confti- 

 tuent alTembly, whofe attention was fixed to this objeit by the propofition of Citizen l^ailey- 

 randf, and charged to determine the unities of meafure and of weight, they employed, for 

 good reafons, which were at that time developed J, as the bafe of the whole metrical fyftem, 

 the fourth part of the terreftrial meridian comprehended between the equator and the north 

 p«le. They adopted the ten millionth part of this arc for the unity of meafure, which they 

 denominated metre, and applied it equally to fuperficial and folid meafures, taking for the 

 unity of the former the fquare of the d.cuple, and for that of the latter the cube of the tenth 

 part of the metre. They chofe for the unity of weight the quantity of diftilled water which 

 the fame cube contains when reduced to a conftant ftatc prefented by nature itfelf ; and laftly, 

 they decided, that the multiples and fub-multiples of each kind of meafure, whether of weight, 

 capacity, furface, or length, fhould be always taken in the decimal progreffion, as being the 

 moft fimple, the moft natural, and the moft eafy for calculation, according to the fyftem of 

 numeration, which all Europe has employed for centuries. Such are the fundamental and 

 effential points of the new metrical fyftem, which the academy has propofed ; which has been 

 adopted by the conftituent alTembly; and which, under names different indeed from thofe 

 chofen by the academy, have been confirmed by the law of i8th Germinal, in the third year 

 of the republic. 



But as the bafts of the new metric fyftem depends on the fourth part of the terreftrial me- 

 ridian, it is neccflary tha; the magnitude of this arc fliould be known, if not _with an extreme 

 precifvon, yet, at leaft, with a degree of precifion fufficient for praftice. Various operations 

 had been already made in France, about the end of the laft century, to determine the magni- 

 tude of feveral arcs of the meridian, which crofles this vaft empire ; and though there might 

 rema-in fome doubts with regard to the perfect accuracy of thefe Operations, notwithftanding 

 the verifications which have from time to time been made, there were good reafons to con- 



* Memoirs of the Academy for 1 748. -f Decree of the 8th of May, 1790. 



} Memoirs of the Academy of 1789. 



Tt dude, 



