U'ljlory of Aftronomy for the Year 1799. I05 



tioned aHronomer has caufed to be printed the Cofmologic 

 Letters of Lambert, translated by C. Darquier, 



A grand telefcope of 2^ feet has been conflru6led by Dr. 

 Ilerfchel for Spain; it cofi: 175,000 francs, (above 7000 /. 

 llerHng) ; but there is no obfervatory at Madrid ; that of 

 Buen-reliro is not yet finiflicd. The minifter Florida Blanca 

 had much at lieart a niufeum and obfervatory, but the ar- 

 chitect finiflied neither of them. When the war broke out, 

 the minifter was difmiffed, and aftronomy in Spain has re- 

 mai-ned in its foraier ftate of torpor. There is fo little money 

 in that country, that it is difficult to find enough to defray 

 the fmalleft expences. But the minifter Durquijo feems to 

 be much difpofed in favour of aftronomy, and, in the mcaa 

 time, has enabled M. Chaix to make ufeful obfervations. 

 1 have thanked him in the name of Aftronomy, and he re- 

 turned fuch an anfwcr as increafes my hopes. 



M. Chaix has been charged in Spain with a labour on 

 mcafures ; and we have fent him from Paris an account of 

 •what was done by Borda, Mechain, and Caffini, in regard tc) 

 the meafare of the pendulum, which in 1792 was found to 

 be 36 inches 8 lines 60 at 10", which is the mean heat at 

 Paris. This fuppofes the pendulum in vacuo reduced to very 

 fmall arcs. Wc learn from the Journal of Jena, that the 

 firft volume of the Memoirs of the Academy of Lifbon was 

 publidicd in 1797; it begins at 1780. It contains obferva- 

 tions made at Lilbon by M. Cuftodio Gomes de Villas- 

 boas, and ^L Ciera; bv JNL Ceriiti at Carthagena, and by 

 Isl. Dorla and Barbofa at Rio-Janeiro; meteorological obfer- 

 vations made at Ilio- Janeiro ; obfervations of the fatellitcs, 

 made at Mafra ; an clogc of d'Alembert, by M. Stockier ; 

 but this eloge has excited perfecution againft the author in a 

 country where the anti-philofophic tribunal iXiW calls itfelf 

 the Holy Inquifition. 



An able arlift at Florence, named Gori, has divided, with 

 great ingenuity, a quadrant belonging to the obfervatory of 

 P. Ximencz, occupied by the Scolopies, and wliich had ori- 

 ginally been very ill divided. We may hope, therefore, for 

 fome obfervations from Tufcany. 



The revolution of Naples has made that capital, the po- 

 \'oL. VL P fuion 



