162 Mansfield Merriman — List of Writings relating 



all the molecules of a body from its centre of gravity must be a 

 minimum, and that hence " la methode des moindres qnarres fait 

 connoitre, en quelque sorte, le centre autour dnquel viennent se ran- 

 ger tons les resultats fournis par I'experience, de maniere a s'en 

 ecarter le nioins qu'il est possible." A numerical example of the 

 application of the method to the determination from five observations 

 of the form of a meridian of the earth closes the book. 



The honor of the first publication of the Method of Least Squares 

 belongs to Legendre. Although he failed to claim that his method 

 gives most probable or most advantageous results, yet the remarks 

 above quoted indicate that he fully recognized it as a rule giving a 

 plausible and reasonable mean. See below 1814. 



1805 PiTissANT. Traite de Geodesie, ou Exposition des Methodes 



astronotniques et trigonometriques Paris, 4to. — Third edition, 



see 1842. 



This contains an explanation and application of Legendre's Method 

 of Least Squares. See review in ZacJi's Monatliche Correspofidenz, 

 Vol. XVI, p. 455. 



1806 Legendre. ' Supplement aux Nouvelles Methodes pour la 

 determination des orbites des com^tes.' Paris, 4to, pp. 55. 



The copy of this supplement which is before me is preceded by a 

 title page reading, " Nouvelles methodes pour la detertnhiation des 



orbites des coinHes ; avec un Supplhnent A Paris, . .. Annee 



1806." This title page was probably prefixed to copies of the work 

 of 1805, with the Supplement added, as the date 1806 is usually stated 

 for it. A second Supplement appeared in [1820], 



On pages 28 and 43 the Method of Least Squares is used. 



1806 LiNDENAU. 'Ueber den Gebrauch der Gradmessungen zur 

 Bestimmung der Gestalt der Erde.' ZacJi's Monatliche Correspon- 

 dent, Vol. XIV, pp.1 13-158, etc. 



Laplace's method of 1792 is stated and used in the discussion of 

 the most probable elliptic meridian. The method is attributed to 

 BoscoviCH ; see 1760. 



On pages 138-143 " die . . - .von Legendre vorgeschlagenen Meth- 

 ode, die er Methode des inoindres quarres nennt" is explained and 

 applied in the determination of the elliptic meridian. The date of 

 Legendre's Nouvelles methodes. . . .is given as 1806. 



1806 Gauss. ' II Comet vom Jahr 1805.' Zach's Monatl. Corres., 

 Vol. XIV, pp. 181-186. 



On page 184 Gauss says: "Legendre's Werk . . , , habe ich noch 

 nicht gesehen. Ich hatte mit Fleiss mir deswegen keine jNIiihe 

 gegeben, um bey der Arbeit an meiner Methode ganz in der Kette 

 meiner eigenen Ideen zu bleiben, Durch ein paar Worte. die de la 

 Lande in der letztern Historie de V Astronomie, 1805, fallen lasst. 



