160 Mansfield Merriman — List cf Writings relating 



1789 Legendre. ' Mt'moire sur les Ope'rations trigonomt'triques, 

 dont les resultats dependent de la figure de la terre.' Hist. Acad. 

 Paris for 1787, pp. 352-383 of the memoirs. 



The method of indeterminate corrections, afterwards of so much 

 use in the computations of Least Squares is here stated and used, 

 althougli perhaps not for the first time. See 1820 Legendre. 



1792 Laplace. 'Sur les degres mesures des meridiens, et sur les 

 longueiirs observees du pendule.' Hist. Acad. Paris for 1789, 

 pp. 18-43 of the memoirs. 



The matter of this memoir is mostly reproduced in Sections 39-42 

 of Chaj). V, Book III, of the Traite de mecanique celeste. 



First a method is presented of determining an elliptic meridian so 

 that the greatest error shall be a minimum; see 1831 Cauohy. 

 Secondly a method is developed for finding an ellipse subject to the 

 following conditions: "1° que la somme des errcurs soit nulle ; 2° 

 que la somme des erreurs prises toutes avec le signe -j- soit un mini- 

 mum." Laplace mentions that Boscovich (1700) had solved the 

 same problem by a different method. Fie alludes to the ellipse thus 

 determined as " I'ellipse la plus probal>le." 



1799 Kramp. 'Table premiere. Integrales de e^"dt, depuis une 

 valeur quelconque de ^jusqu' a t infinie.' and 'Table seconde. Loga- 

 rithmes des integrales fe^"dt? Analyse des refractions . . . (Stras- 

 bourg, 4to), pp. 195-206. 



For description of these tables, afterwards of so great use in the 

 Theory of Errors, see Glaisher, Lo)id. Phil. Mag., 1871, Vol. XLII, 

 p. 431. 



1804 Trembley. 'Observations sur la methode de prendre les 

 milieux entre les observations.' Menioires Acad. JBerlin for 1801, 

 pp. 29-58 of the math. part. 



"A])pears to be of no value whatever." — Todhunter, I/ist. of 

 Probability, p. 428. 



1804 Prony. Peel ler die s pJiysico-inathematiqxies sur la theorie des 



eanx conr antes. Paris, 4to. 



Contains api»lications of Laplace's methods of 1792 to- the deduc- 

 tion of empirical foi'mula3 from discordant observations. 



1805 Legendre. '• Nouvelles m'ethodes pour la determination des 



orbites des comUes.'' Paris, 4to, pp. viii, 80. — Second edition, see 



1806, 



The date 1806 is generally given for this book, in which year a 

 second edition seems to have been issued. The copy before me is 

 plainly dated, "An XIII— 1805." 



