to determine the Figure of the Earth. 123 
guer, La Condamine, Clairault, and Maupertuis died; and it was 
only when astronomical instruments became more perfect, that 
the fact of the flattening at the poles could be accurately ascer- 
tained. ‘The Academy gave still more importance to these re- 
searches by proposing to take the measurement of the earth as 
the fundamental element of a system of general and uniform 
measures, of which all the parts would be connected by simple 
relations, and in accordance with our mode of numeration. The 
Academy hopes that such-a system, founded upon natural ele- 
ments, invariable and independent of the prejudices of the peo- 
ple, will ultimately become as common to all, as are now the 
Arabian ciphers, the division of time, and the calendar. This 
wish was long ago expressed by the best and the most enlightened 
of our kings. The proposal for carrying it into effect was one 
of the last sighs of the Academy, and the act which decided its 
execution was one of the last which preceded the fatal epoch of 
our great political convulsions. All the institutions tending to 
maintain civilization and knowledge perished, and the Academy 
perished with them. But men of science prosecute without au- 
thority what they esteem useful. In the midst of the disorders 
of popular anarchy, MM. Delambre and Mechain, furnished 
with the new instruments of Borda, commenced and prosecuted, 
often at the risk of their lives, the most extensive and exact 
measurement of the earth. They concluded it with the same 
perfection, though not with the same ease, as if it had béen in 
times of the most profound tranquillity. Nor was the measure- 
ment of the pendulum neglected. Borda, who had so far ad- 
vanced every other mode of observation, invented for this experi- 
ment a method, the exactness of which surpassed every thing 
previously known, and which has never been surpassed. 
After these operations, it was thought that the are might be 
continued many degrees south across Catalonia, and that it 
might be possible to prolong it to the Balearic isles by means 
of an immense triangle, of which the sides extending over the 
sea should join these islands to the coast of Valentia. Me¢hain 
devoted himself to this operation: but after having surveyed all 
the chain and measured the first triangles, he died of a fever in 
Valentia. M. Arago and myself were intrusted with the completion 
of the work, along with the commissioners of the king of Spain. 
We had the good fortune to succeed; but, as is well known, 
M. Arago did not return to France without encountering great 
danger, and after a distressing captivity. Our results confirmed 
those of the arc of France, and gave them a new proof of accuracy. 
After the method of Borda, we also measured at our remote sta- 
tion the lengthsof the seconds pendulum, M. Matthieu and myself 
repeated 
