Dr. Gregory^ s Strictures on Don Rodriguez, 183 

 ones unimpeached. To me it appears that a candid critic 

 would in analoj-nns circumstances make analogous in- 

 ferences : and not sift one class oF results to the bottom, 

 while he satisfies hmiself with raerelv olancmg at the sur- 

 face of the other class. Had he exananed the French 

 measures a little more minutely, he would, instead ot adopt- 

 ing them as his standard, have found that they exhibit 

 far too sreat irregularities to be entitled to that honour. 

 Takincr the results of the operations of Dclambre and Me- 

 chain °as subdivided naturally by the assumed stations at 

 Dunkirk, the Pantheon ai Paris, Evaux, Carcassone, and 

 Montiouy, and applying to them the principle developed 

 bv Leeendre, in which " the sum ot the squares of the 

 errors Ts made a rrunlmim:' the requisite compression is 

 -i^; and even then, the deviations from what the theory 

 would require are, at Dunkirk -2 "23, that is, nearly 2, 

 decimal Seconds; at the Panth.on, +3^'63; at Lvaux, 

 -4-"79 ; and at Carcassone, + l-"34. Htre the compres- 

 sion which agrees best with the observations is more than 

 double what it ought to be. If a medium compression had 

 been chosen, the errors at the several stations would have 

 deviated still further from the probable errors of observa- 

 tion Don Rodriguez will find th,s confirmed by Puissant, 

 Gtodcsie, p. 137, 141, and by \.^^\^z^, Exposition da 

 Systeme du Monde, liv. i. ch. 12. Aiter he has duly re^ 

 fleeted upon the deductions of those philosophers, he will 

 perhaps be convinced that he has been rather precipitate in 

 takinsr the French operations as a standard. 



But 2dlv, This writer infers that there must be some 

 error in Col. Mudge's observations, because they tend to 

 show that the terrestrial spheroid is very irregular All the 

 measurements '' which have been hitherto made m the 

 northern hemisphere are (he tells us) extremely satisfactory 

 hi their agreement, and give us great reason to presume 

 that the general level of the earlh^s surtace is elliptica. and 

 very re^iilarly so." " There would not have remained he 

 smillett doubt respecting the earth b«mg flattened at he 

 poles," but for the " measurement performed in hngland. 

 But " this measure alone would lead to the supposition, 

 that the eaith, instead of being flallencd at the poles, is, in 

 fact, more elevated at that part (the author mrans tho.e 

 parts) ihan at the equator, or, at least, that its surtace is 

 not that of a regular solid." The degrees, m fac t , tncease 

 as the latitudes diminish; which, says Don Rndrigv'ez, 

 «* excites a suspicion of some incorrectness in the obser- 

 vations theraselvcs}" whereas, the only fair '"terence .«, 

 M 4 ''^'** 



