214 Mansfield Merriman — List of Writhn/s relathuj 



1869 LtjROTH. ' Bemerkuiig liber die Bestiinmuiig des vvuhrschein- 

 licheii Fehlers.' Astron. JSFachr., Vol. LXXIII, col. 187-190. 



If )i be the number of observations and q that of the unknown 

 quantities, the probable eVror of a single observation is found to be 



r = 0.845.3 '- . 



This is an extension of the formula given by Peters in 1856. See 

 18V6 Helmert. 



1869 Rogers. 'On the Variability of Personal Equation in 

 Transit Observations.' Amer. Jour. ScL, Vol. XLVII, pp. 297-307. 

 A discussion of interesting experiments. 



1869 Todhunter. 'On the Method of Least Squares.' Trans. 

 Camb. Phil. Soc, Vol. XI, pp. 219-238. 



On page 9 of the First Supplement (1815) or on page 539 of the 

 natiomil edition of the llieorie. . . .des Proh.^ Laplace gave, without 

 demonstration, a certain formula. "The primary object of this com- 

 munication is to demonstrate the result which as I have stated 

 Laplace merely enunciated A secondary object of the com- 

 munication is to develop Laplace's own process of investigating the 

 method of Least Squai-es ; some of the results which he obtained for 

 the case of Uoo elements are here demonstrated to hold for the case 

 of any number of elements." 



1869 Watson. ' Method of Least Squares, Theory of the Combi- 

 nation of Observations, and Determination of the most probable 

 system of elements from a series of observations.' Chap. VII of his 

 TJieoretical Astronomy (Philadelphia, 8vo), pp. 360-425. 



An elementary sketch of the subject according to Gauss and 

 Encke. 



[1869] Thiele. Undersogelse af Omlobsbevaegelsen i Dobelstjerne. 



" Thiele hat gezeigt dass der wahrscheinlichste Werthe bei durch 

 Schatzung ermittelnden Doppelsterndistanzen das geometrische Mit- 

 tel ist." — Helmert, AitsgleicJiungsrachnimg.^ p, 95. 



1870 Crofton. 'On the Proof of the Law of Errors of Observa- 

 tions.' Phil. Trans. London for 1870, pp. 175-188. 



The object of this paper is to determine the law of facility of 

 error on the hypothesis that an error arises from the joint operation 

 of a large number of small sources of error, positive and negative 

 errors not being equally probable. The investigation is not very 

 clear. 



