146 
kingdom, essentially connected with the 
meridian of Dunkirk, is intended, in 
general, to verify or bring uniformly to- 
gether various other plans, so as to form 
a new topographical chart, of a descrip- 
tion much ‘superior to all preceding 
ones. bot 
In a notice relative to the labours of 
the French engineers in Italy, from the 
year 1801 to 1814, by M. Franceur, it 
appears that the special object of these 
geodesic operations, in’ Upper Italy, 
was to construct a general chart of the 
whole peninsula, then, together with 
other adjacent countries, under French 
domination; also’ to furnish bases for 
topographical plans in the latter. The 
chief engineer was Colonel Brossier, 
who had Italian aswell as French co- 
adjutors; their sphere of action reached 
from the Alps to Rome. 
A continued series of triangles, of the 
first order, stretched over the entire 
superficies of Upper Italy, in that part 
which reaches from the Alps to the 
Apennines, and from the river Sesia to 
that of Isonza, This mathematical net- 
work projects its ramifications into 
Piedmont, into the canton of Tesin, the 
territories of Genoa, Parma, and Pla- 
centia, as also into Istria, and the Gulph 
of Quarnero. It, moreover, includes 
trigonometrical operations’ made at 
Rome and the surrounding districts, to 
verify or correct the ancient triangula- 
tions of Lemaire and Boscovitch, as it 
had been found necessary to rectify one 
part of them in the march of Ancona. 
The bases of departure is in a heath, 
on the left bank of the Tesin, the same 
as was adopted by the Milanese astro- 
nomers in 1788. The spire of the dome 
of Milan forms the capital point of several 
chains of about a hundred triangles. 
One of these goes to Rimini, another to 
Verona and Mantua, in a direction per- 
pendicular to the meridian of Rome; a 
third reaches to Venice, a fourth goes 
from Rimini to Padua, a fifth reaches 
to Rivoli, and a sixth to Turin. A 
most exact concordance subsists be- 
tween the measurements of the French 
engineers and those of M. de la Zach, 
in Friuli and Carinthia. 
One advantage resulting from these 
labours is the discovery of material 
errors m the ancient measurements of 
an arc of the terrestrial meridian, exe- 
cuted fifty or sixty years ago, by Bos- 
covitch, in the Roman States, and by 
Beccaria, in Piedmont. It was at the 
recommendation of the French’ Aca- 
demy of Sciences; the charges were 
Proceedings of Public Societies. 
[Sept. 
defrayed by the King of Sardinia and the 
Pope. 
The French geographers, by extend- 
ing the arc of Boscovitch from: Rimini 
to the north of Venice, have obtained a 
new valuation’ of the degree of the 
meridian of Italy. The labours of Bec- 
caria are much inferior in correctness to 
those of Boscovitch. M. de la Zach has 
performed. several Geodesic operations 
on the same points as Beccaria, and his 
results are proved to be accurate. Those 
of Boscovitch and Beccaria have long 
been considered as models of a perfec- 
tion to which they are not entitled. 
In a late sitting, M.Becquerel com- 
municated some new experiments in 
electricity. By the aid of galvanome- 
ters, so disposed, that each may concur 
to the general effect, he has been enabled 
to augment, in an indefinite degree, the 
sensibility of the apparatus. He has 
thereby discovered the electric currents 
which take place in the dissolution of 
alkalis, salts, and acids, in water, and 
also in the capillary phenomena. The 
results of these he has traced step by 
step. 
M. Rossel read a report in reply to a 
demand of the minister of interior, to 
ascertain, correctly, the distances from 
Paris to Bastia and Ajaccio. The re- 
sults of the new calculations are as fol- 
low: From Paris to Marseilles 168,7 
leagues (of 2000’), from Paris to Basti 
224,9 leagues, from Paris to » Ajaccio 
235,0 leagues, from Paris to Toulon 
221,86, from Toulon to Ajaccio 68,82 
leagues. The shortest cut from Toulon 
to Bastia or Ajaccio is not of two en- 
tire days, the longest from eight to ten, 
medium term four or five days. 
ACADEMY Of TURIN. 
In December last, M. Cordero re- 
ported to the academy of sciences of 
Turin, a notice respecting the Egyptian 
antiquities collected by the Chevalier 
Drovetti. This collection is intended 
for the museum of Turin, and was 
lately at Leghorn on its way thither. 
It will throw much light on the re- 
searches and conjectures of different 
voyagers, and especially of Belzoni, Ca- 
viglia, and Cailliard. It contains all 
sorts of monuments of Lower and Up- 
per Egypt—statues, sarcophagi, groupes, 
medals, inscriptions, &c. The most va- 
luable is a table of granite, ofthat kind 
which the Greeks call ‘ Stela.” The gra- 
nite is from the Thebais, red, and in the 
form of a parallelipipedon; the surface 
has been, unfortunately, damaged in 
several 
