STUDY IX. 245 



ciples from which this laft condufion has been de- 

 duced, and the obfervations on which it has been 

 fupported. The flattening of the Earth at the 

 Poles has been accounted for fron^. a centrifugal 

 force, to which likewife it's motion through the 

 He»vens has been afcribedj though this pretended 

 force, which has increafed the diameter of the 

 Earth at the Equator, has not the power of raifing 

 io much as a ftraw into the air. 



The flattening of the Poles, they tell us, has 

 been afcertained, by the meafurement of two tcr- 

 r^ftrial degrees, made at a vaft expenfe, the one in 

 Peru, near the Equator, and the other in Lapland, 

 bordering upon the polar Circle ^. Thofe expe- 

 riments were made, undoubtedly, by men of very 

 great capacity and reputation. But perfonsofat 

 ieafl equal capacity, and of a name as high in the 

 republic of Science, had demonftrated, upon other 

 principles, and by other experiments, thai the 

 Earth was lengthened at the Poles. Cajfini efti- 

 mates at fifty leagues, the length by which the 

 axis of the Earth exceeds it's diameters, which 

 gives to each of the Poles twenty-five leagues of 

 elevation over the circumference of the Globe. We 



* It is evident, that the conchifion, from thofe veiy meafure- 

 «lents, ought to have been, that the Earth is lengthened at the 

 Poles. See the Explanation of the Plates ia vol. i. 



. ' R ^ fliall 



