Hijlory of Ajlronomy for the Yiar I'Soi. 175 



him, that he had caufcd the firll prize to be doubled, and 

 that it would be worthy of hii character to double the prefcnt 

 one. He inllantly complied. The minilter Chaptal, who 

 was preient, propofed to me to induce Burg to come to Paris, 

 where he ihould have a penfion of 3C00 francs. He would be 

 an excellent co-operator in improving aftronoiny in France, 

 where it is already fo much cultivated : but this worthy aiiro- 

 nomer preferred his own country with lefs advantaa;e. His 

 tables of ihe moon are about to be printed, as well as the 

 new 'tables of the fun by Delambre; and we have alreadv 

 communicated them to Dr. Maflcclyne, the altronomer royal 

 of England, who will be enabled by ihem to impro\'e the 

 Nautical Almanac, which lince 1767 has been of the greatelt 

 utility to navifjators. 



The report of C. Delambre will be publiflicd in the Con- 

 noi/J'ance dfs Temps for the year 13, which is about to appear. 



The Arabic text of all the oblervations in the manufcript 

 of Ibn Junis, lent to us by the Batavian republic, with a 

 tranflation by C. Cauflin, and an extract, from the part which 

 it was not judged nccelfarv to tranllate and to print, has b(teu 

 finifhed at the printing-office of the republic. C. Cauffiu is 

 the firlt of all the nrcjfcllijrs of Arabic who has rendered his 

 knowledge really uleful. I reproached them fifty years aao, 

 on account of their trunflating nothing hut romaLces. 



The obfervation of the eighteenth tranfit of Mercury over 

 the fiui's difc on the morning of November 9 perfe6lly I'uc- 

 cecded. We were the more interelled in it, as it will not be 

 again feen at Pans till the 5th of May I'S^T.. It coniirmed, 

 in the completeli: manner, the exaclnefs of my tables of Mer- 

 cury. The egieis of the centre, according to a mean of all 

 the obfcrvations, took place at 7' 34 ' afternoon ; and the 

 longitude of Mercury which I thence deduced is 7' 16' 17' 

 q", at 21** 2' 40'' mean time of the conjundlion, even taking 

 into account the corredtion to be made in the tables of the 

 fun, which by my nephew Lalande was obierved to be — 

 10^4; the geocentric latitude in conjundlicm ^6". I have 

 had the moft fatisfaftory confirmation of the theory of Mer- 

 cury, which I gave in the firfi memoir, read in the liril fitting 

 of the firlt clals of the Inliitutc on the ill of January 1796. 

 More details on this fubjeft will be found in the Memoirs of 

 the Inliilulc. 



M. Cai'ella, phyfician to the king of Naples, and M. Bygge, 

 aftronomer royal of Copenhagen, &c. have lent ir:c cxadt ob- 

 fcrvations of tliis tranfit. 



The fuHtice was exadlly obferved with whole circles Ijy 

 C. Delambre, and by C. iBurckhardt and Lalaude junior. 



The 



