SEQUEL TO THE EPOCH OF NEWTON. 247 



to each particle of the mass separately ; and thus 

 the experimental confirmation of the form asserted 

 from calculation, would be a verification of the 

 theory in its widest sense. The application of such 

 a test was the more necessary to the interests of 

 science, inasmuch as the French astronomers had 

 collected from their measures, and had connected 

 with their Cartesian system, the opinion that the 

 earth was not oblate but oblong. Dominic Cassini 

 had measured seven degrees of latitude from Amiens 

 to Perpignan, in 1701, and found them to decrease 

 in going from south to north. The prolongation of 

 this measure to Dunkirk confirmed the same result. 

 But if the Newtonian doctrine was true, the con- 

 trary ought to be the case, and the degress ought 

 to increase in proceeding towards the pole. 



The only answer which the Newtonians could at 

 this time make to the difficulty thus presented, was, 

 that an arc so short as that thus measured, was not 

 to be depended upon for the determination of such 

 a question; inasmuch as the inevitable errours of 

 observation might exceed the differences which were 

 the object of research. It would, undoubtedly, have 

 become the English to have given a more complete 

 answer, by executing measurements under circum- 

 stances not liable to this uncertainty. The glory of 

 doing this, however, they, for a long time, aban- 

 doned to other nations. The French undertook the 

 task with great spirit 37 . In 1733, in one of the 



liailly, iii. 11. 



