ft4 H'ljlorj) of Ajlronomy for 1798. 



On the 15th of December 1797, Tycho Brahe's birth- 

 day, Dr. J. Ch. Burckhard arrived at my houfe. This able 

 aftronomer, born at Leipfic on the 30th of April 1773, 

 came to reinforce the aftronomical corps in France ; and he 

 is engaged in a German tranflation of Laplace's Mecha?iique 

 Celcfle, or ha Theor'iedc V Atlraclhn, now in the prefs. This 

 important work will give the laft degree of perfection to our 

 tables : two hundred pages of it are already printed. 



On the fame day I requefted General Bonaparte to pro- 

 cure a good inftrument for the obfervatory; and on the 19th 

 of March the government granted me 2000 livres to pur- 

 chafe the feven and a half feet mural quadrant of C. le 

 Monnier. We had long folicited good inftruments for the 

 obfervatory. C. Caffini, when director in 1785, had ob- 

 tained a fund for that purpofe from the minifter Breteuil; 

 but he had not time to make ufe of it. When I was direc- 

 tor in 1795 I renewed my folicitations, and we were at 

 length able to procure, the firft time, for the moft beautiful 

 obfervatory in the univerfe, an inftrument worthy of France*. 

 The Bureau des Longitudes has fent thither an achromatic 

 telefcope; but that is not fufficient. 



On the 3Cth of April I requefted from General Bonaparte 

 10,000 livres to ere£t the mural quadrant and the meridian 

 telefcope of the obfervatory ; and to make at Paris obferva- 

 tions to correfpond with thofe made by his aftronoftiers. He 

 departed too foon ; but Neufchateau, the French minifter, is 

 worthy of remedying that deficiency, and gives us reafon to 

 hope for the affiftance we ftand in need of. C. Lefrangais 

 obferved, with a complete circle, the folftices of this yearj 

 and I have feen, with pleafure, that the obliquity of the 

 ecliptic correfponds, within a fecond or two, with the table 

 which I gave in my Aftronomy in 1792, and which is em- 

 ployed by moft aftronomers. 



* The expence of building the obfervatnrv i<; cftimared at ■\ million of 

 livres (40,000!.), without including the foundations and fubterrincan 

 places eighty fctt in depth. 



On 



