110 Hyiory oj AJlranomy for the- Year 1799. 



board fliip, we might employ inftruments, which would 

 obviate the inconvenience of motion. 



There have been periods wlien an aflronomer would h^ve 

 been glad to rife above the clouds. Le Gentil went to India 

 in 1760 to obfervc the tranfit of Venus : by the war he was 

 deprived of an opportunity of obferving that of 1761 ; he wa3 

 obliffcd, therefore, to wait for that of 1769 ; but he was again 

 difappointcd by clouds. He had travelled then ten thoufand 

 leagues, and employed ten years for an obfervation which 

 be did not make. If he had been in poffeffion of an aero- 

 ftatic clobe, this long voyage would not have been loft to 

 aftronomy ; and, as aftronomers, we have reafon to congra- 

 tulate ourfelves on the noble difcovery of Montgolfier. 



The froft, during winter, aflbrded an opportunity alfo for 

 meteorological experiments. C. Fourcroy repeated that of 

 the congelation of mercury : at 30 degrees it began to lofe 

 its fluidity, and at 32 became folid. 



It now remains for me to fpeak of the loflTes which aftro-- 

 nomy has fuftained this year. The firft, and moft remarkable, 

 is the death of John Charles de Borda, on the 19th of Fc* 

 bruary 1799. He was born at Dax on the 4th of May 1733. 

 He was firft in the light horfe, and afterwards in the engi- 

 neers. In 1769 M. De Roqucfeuil induced him to enter into 

 the navy, where his mathematical knowledge might render 

 him of more utility. In 1754 he was received into the Aca- 

 demy of Sciences, where he was always confidcrcd as one of 

 the firft geometers. In 1771 he undertook a voyage to 

 America, m the Flora, with Verdun and Pingrc. The rC" 

 fults appeared in 1778 in two volumes quarto, the greater 

 part of which were due to his labours. In 1774 he under- 

 took a voyage to the Azores, the Cape Verd iflands, and 

 the coaft of Africa. The manufcript exifts, and contains 

 many obfervations, which render tlie publication of it de- 

 firable, I do not fpeak of his learned refearches on the re- 

 fiftanee of fluids, which are in the memoirs of the Academy 

 for 1763 and 1767, fince I have nothing to recall here but 

 what he has done for aftronomy and the marine. But 

 C. Lefevre Gineau will read publicly in the Inftitute a more 

 p'artlcular eloge of this illuftriou? academician. By ferving 



in 



