138 Memoir of the late M. Delambre 



the |)lcasiiie of seeiug a statement in 

 the Philiintluopic Gazette, of the 13th 

 of Aiigust, by cultivators of tlie same 

 article on a laifrer scale, and, consider- 

 ing it a useful one, has inserted a copy 

 of it :— 



" Messrs, Cowley and Staines, of 

 Winslovv, Bucks, have cultivated poppies 

 for opium with much success. Tn 1821, 

 they produced 60 lbs. of solid opium, 

 <;qiial to the best Turkey, from rather less 

 tlian four acres and a half; the seed was 

 sown in February, came up in Marcii, and 

 tiie e;athering coiTimenced in the latter end 

 of July, when tlie poppies had lost their 

 petals, and weie covered wiih a bluish 

 white bloom. By horizontal incisions, 

 opium was procured from them daily, 

 until the produce would no longer bear 

 the expense ; 97 lbs. 1 oz. were obtained 

 for 31/. lis. '2\i\., whicii, v^hcn properly 

 evaporated, yielded GO lbs. of dried opium. 

 The poppies stood till tliey became yellow, 

 about the miMIe of August ; they were 



[March 1 , 



then pulled, and laid in rows on the land, 

 and when dry, seeds were got from them 

 amounting to 30 cwt. which was expected 

 to yield 714 gallons of oil. The oil-cake 

 was used with great advantage in feeding 

 cattle. From the capsule, from whicli 

 the seed is obtained, an extract may be 

 got by cold water, eight grains of which 

 are equal to one of opium, an acre pro- 

 ducing 80 lbs. of it; and the poppy straw, 

 when laid in the yard in a compact heap, 

 makes excellent manure. 



The quantity of opium consnmcd in this 

 country annually is about 50,000 lbs., 

 which could be easily raised in many 

 parts, where there is dry land and a super- 

 iluons population : on the moderate calcu- 

 lation of ten pounds per acre, 6000 acres 

 would be suflicient, which would employ 

 about 50,000 people, such as are not cal- 

 culated for connnon agricultuial labour, 

 and at a time wlieji there is scarcely any 

 other labour for them, viz. between hay- 

 time and harvest." 



BIOGRAPHY OF EMINENT PERSONS. 



NOTICE of the late M. delambre, per- 



• PETUAL SECRETARY of </(fi MATHEMA- 

 TICAL CLASS in the INSTITUTE of 

 FRANCE, PROFESSOU o/ ASTRONOMY in 

 the COLLEGE of FRANCE. 



MDELAMBUE was born at 

 . Amiens, in September 1749. 

 While lie was pursuing his studies at his 

 native place, (he expulsion of the Jesuits 

 from France left vacant several of the 

 professorships in the College, and these 

 vacancies were filled by professors sent 

 from Paris. Among- these was the 

 Abb6 Delillc, a Repeater of Syntax in 

 the College of Beauvais, who had 

 already attempted to translate the 

 Georgics of Yirgil. The citizens of 

 Amiens, viijio were attached to the in- 

 terests of (iio Jesuits, refused (o admit 

 the new professors into their society, 

 and Dclille was thus left to associate 

 only with his pupils. UnJcr these cir- 

 cumstances, he soon distinguished De- 

 lambre ; and a friendship thus com- 

 menced between the master and his 

 pupil, which was afterwards renewed in 

 Paris, and wiiicli terminated only with 

 the life of the poet. 



In the year 1782, in the thirty-third 

 of his age, M. Delambre became ac- 

 quainted with the celebrated French 

 astronomer Lalaudc, who, observing his 

 aptitude for the study of astronomy, ad- 

 vised him to devote liis attention to that 

 science. Influenced by this advice, he 

 became the pupil of Lalande, who 



afterwards used to say that Delambre 

 was his best work. One of the first 

 papers publisiied by Delambre was his 

 account of the occultation of Venus on 

 the 121h April, 1785, which appeared in 

 llie -3d volume of the Nova Acta Petro- 

 politana ; and in the same year he con- 

 tribuled to the JMenioirs of the Aca- 

 demy of Berlin a dissertation on the 

 elements of the solar orbit, — a subject 

 which he afterwards pursued with such 

 distinguished success. The greater 

 number of our author's papers, how- 

 ever, were published in the Connaissance 

 dcs Terns; and, from 1788 to 1817, 

 almost every volume was enriciicd with 

 a valuable memoir from his pen. 



The discovery of the Georgium Sidus 

 by Dr. Herschel in 1781, directed the 

 attention of astronomers to the determi- 

 nation of its orbit. In this new field, 

 Delambre obtained great distinction. 

 He constructed the most accurate tables 

 of the motion of the new planet; and, in 

 1790, the prize given by the French 

 Academy was awarded to him for these 

 labours. In 1792, he obtained another 

 prize for his Tables of the Satellites of 

 Jupiter ; and he soon afterwards pre- 

 sented to the same learned body his 

 Tables of tlie Motions of Jupiter and 

 Saturn. In consequence of these valu- 

 able contributions to the science of 

 astronomy, he was unanimously chosen 

 a member of the Academy of Sciences 

 in 1792. In the same year he was 

 appointed, 



