1S06.] Progrefs of AJironomym\BQ5, bi/ Lalande. 331 



lier were amonj the moft complete, and 

 became the balis of many calculations 

 relative to the parallax of the .Sua wiiich 

 M.de liatte undertook. lie afterwards 

 made many obfcrvatious on the tranlits 

 of Mercury over the Sun, on Eclipfcs of 

 the Sun ;uid Moon, on the Satellites of 

 Jupiter, and on the occultations of the 

 Stars, the £;reatcll part of which have not 

 been publiflied. He directed towards 

 the ftudy of allroiiomy the genius of M. 

 Poitcvin, who flill fuccefsfuUy devotes 

 himfelf to that fcience, and whole ob- 

 fer\ations have been feveial times re- 

 printed. He deeply regretted that the 

 Obfcrvatory of Montpellier was not 

 placed in a ilate of conltant activity by 

 the eftablilhnient of a regular allrono- 

 nier. 



M. de Ratte, fen., having died in 1770, 

 dean of tlie coimfellors of the Cour des 

 Aides of INIontpellier, the wilhes of his 

 family and of the public induced his fon 

 to undertake the duties of that office, 

 which he difchargcd in the moll diflin- 

 guiflied manner till the fupprellion of 

 that court. He was often tJieir organ 

 on important occafions and in ditHcult 

 times, and this occalloned him to be con- 

 fined in 179S. 



At the conclufion of the reign of ter- 

 ror, the memliers of the ancient Royal 

 Society, w ho had had the good fortune to 

 efcape profcription, conceivcfl the defign 

 of reviving the inl'titution under the 

 name of the Society of Sciences and 

 Belles-Lettres. This plan fucceeded ; 

 the fociety was formed ; and M. de 

 Ratte was at firit appointed fecrctary, 

 and foon became its prelident. It has 

 already given to the public two volumes 

 of its iNltmoirs, under the title of Bulle- 

 tins, wliich contain intcrefiins; obierva- 

 tions and relearches. There is a Dif- 

 courfe b\ M. de Ratte in the Ijullctin of 

 the ;jd of May, 1(504, w hich ednces that 

 his zeal was not damped by age. 



i\[. de Ratte was ek\:led a non-refi- 

 dent alVociate of the iNational Iidlitute, 

 and afterwards appointed a mem])er of 

 the Legion of Honour. 



He enjoyed perffiM health during the 

 whole courfe of his life, but of late yeais 

 he V as alilicted w ith a retention of urine, 

 the attacks ol' which became more fre- 

 fjuent and more painful ; but the habit 

 he hud of fullering without complaining, 

 and iiis naturid good-humour, caufcd 

 thofo who faw him to forget that he ^vas 

 ill. He was at the Academy on flic '24th 

 of .luiH", 1!'.0.'), and it was not till the 

 d;iy prcccdiii;j iiis death tlial Iw was 



thought to be in danger. He expired 

 the 15th of Augull, aged eighty-three 

 years. 



M. de Ra'tte was lliort of ftaturc ; he 

 had a pleating and intelligent phyliogno- 

 my ; bis converlatiou was lively and 

 agreeable ; he never contradicted, and 

 conltantly reduced himfelf to a level 

 with thole to whom he was fpeaking. 

 His modeily and limplicity were extreme, 

 and people were furprifed to find in a 

 man of confunmiate knowledge of every 

 kind the franknels and fimplicity of u 

 child. His memory was prodigious. He 

 was never married ; and by his death is 

 extinguillied the houfe of Uatte, eftablilli- 

 ed in Languedoc as far back as 1433, 

 and originally from Bologna in Italy. 

 This family was diftinguillied as early as 

 1125, by the talents and virtues of Hu- 

 bert de Ratte, Cardinal and Archbifliop 

 of Pifa, and by the military achieve- 

 ments of John dc' Ratte, Count of C'a- 

 ferta, in the kingdom of Naples. 



The aftrononiical obfervations of M. 

 de Ratte were collected by his nephew 

 M. de Flaugergues, of Viviers. RI. Poi- 

 tevin, Secretary of tlie Academy, and 

 himfelf an aflrononirr, publilhed his Eu- 

 logy at greater length at Montpellier, in 

 32 pages, 4to. 



\^'e have likewife loft M. Romme, the 

 fkilful profcifyr of navigation at Roche- 

 fort. He was engaged \\itli ine in altro-. 

 nomical operations in his youth. I pro- 

 cured him a fituation at Rochefort, and 

 he made numerous obfervations. 



In 1771 he publilhed a jMethod of 

 Determining th'' Longitude at Sea ; and 

 in 1800, a Model of Calculation for 

 Finding the Longitude and Latitude at 

 .Sea, imagining that he liad difcovored an 

 inconvenience in Borda's method in cer- 

 tain cafes. JM. Delambre, in the V.on- 

 uoiljunce des Temps tor the year 12, piige 

 2(j3, has demonftratcd that varioas au- 

 thors have at(nally been milhd<en iu 

 fuppofing that the fum of the two heights 

 and the difiance exceeds IHO*^', but that 

 this could not poliibl)- be the cafe. 



In 178o Ronmie publilhed the Art of 

 Malting ; in 17ol tliat of Sail-Making ; 

 and in 1787 the Art of iNavigalion, or 

 General Princi|iies and Precepts on tho 

 Art of Building, ^VorkinL', and Managin<5 

 Ships, a work highly elleemed by navi- 

 gators. 



He compofed feveral other works 

 ^^hlch Barois, fen., w;ts on the point of 

 )irinting in 17!)f5. I w as purticularlv dc- 

 lirous of having the Tables of the Vviiius, 

 'i'idts, and CurreiUs, iu all the Seas of 

 T t Z lli 



