228 PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. [aNNO 16C)8. 



more easily and safely be relieved after this same manner, even of stones of a 

 much larger size. 



A Lunar Eclipse observed at Rollerdam, Oct. 29. N. S. 1697. By M. Jas. 



Cassini.* N° 236, p. 15. 



The beginning of this eclipse could not be seen for clouds. 



At 6'' 32"" 34% the moon, seen among the clouds, seemed as yet entire. 



At 6 4] 23 beginning of mare crisium eclipsed. 



Q 14 39 the end of mare crisium. 



921 34 end of the eclipse. 



Account of a Book, entitled, Hortus Medicus Amstelodamensis , sive Planlarum 

 tarn Orientalis qnam Occidenlalis Indice aliarumque Peregriiiaram Descriptio et 

 Jcones. Ai'lore Joanne Commelino^ Urbis Amstelod. {dmn viverit) Senatore. 

 Opus Latinitate donatum, Notis et Observationibus ilhistratum a Frederico 



* James Cassini, a celebrated French astronomer, was born at Paris, Feb. 18, )()77, being the 

 younger son of John Dominic Cassini, whom he succeeded as astronomer al the. Royal Observatory, 

 the elder son having lost his life at the battle of La Hogue. At the early age of 17 he -was admitted 

 a member of the Academy of Sciences; and in I696 he visited England, where he was chosen a 

 Fellow of tbe Royal Society. From time to time he enriched the stock of science with many valu- 

 able discoveries and works, both published separately, and in different literary journals. In 1740 he 

 published his Astronomical Tables, and elements of Astronomy ; very extensive and accurate works. 

 Cassini did not confine himself entirely to astronomy, but made some curious experiments in elec- 

 triciiy and other parts of natural philosophy ; as, experiments on the recoil of fire-arms; on the rise 

 of the barometer at different heights above the level of the sea ; on the perfecting of burning-glasses, 

 &c. In 1700 he assisted his father in continuing and producing the meridian of Paris to the 

 southward; and the part of it to the northward he finished in 1718, assisted by Maraldi, and 

 De la Hire the younger. From these measures, as also from the measure of a perpendicular to 

 the meridian, he concluded, in opposition to Newton, that the figure of the earth was an oblong 

 spheroid, or resembled a lemon. In consequence of these assertions of James Cassini, the French 

 government sent out two different sets of measurers, the one to measure a degree at the equator, 

 anil the other at the polar circle. The comparison of these measures gave a figure of the earth 

 the reverse of that assigned by Cassini, or the form of the oblate spheroid. 



Cassini was however a very great and learned cultivator of science, and published several other 

 works ; as, a Treatise on the Magnitude and Figure of the Earth ; also Elements or Theory of the 

 Planets with Tables, besides an immense number of papers in the Memoirs of the Academy, 

 between the years 169s and 1756". But after a long and laborious career, he lost his life by a 

 fall in 1756', in the 80th year of Jiis age ; and he was succeeded in the Academy and in the Ob- 

 servatory, by his .second son Caesar-Francois Cassini de Thury, the third of that illustrious name, 

 ever dear to science. 



+ John Conimelinus was a celebrated botanist of the 17ih century. He was a native of Amster- 

 dam, and was a burgomaster of that city. Besides the abovenientioiied work published after his 



