222 Length of a Degree of the Terrestrial Meridian. 



to the London artist, was pronounced by him to be the highest 

 encomium that could be bestowed.* Dr. Prince, from the love of 

 science and an ardent zeal to promote its diffusion, used to keep on 

 hand collections of some of the most important philosophical instru- 

 ments, for the supply of colleges and other higher seminaries, while 

 the trifling commission which he charged on the original bills was 

 hardly sufficient to save him from loss. At a very short notice, he 

 displayed for me a very complete pneumatic apparatus which would 

 have been a treasure to any college. In this particular, as well as in 

 the tout ensemble of his character, his place will hardly be filled 

 again ; and he himself enjoyed the satisfaction of seeing that the 

 exigencies of science in this country, could now be much better sup- 

 phed than when he was its sole pioneer in the eastern, and almost 

 in the United States. 



In all future periods of our advancement in the physical sciences, 

 his name will be remembered with honor, clarum et veneraiile nomen. 



Art. IL — O71 the Length of a Degree of the Terrestrial Meridi- 

 an — Ohlateness and axes of the Earth — Comparative ohlateness 

 of the Planets — Reduction of Latitude — Radius of the Earth — 

 and Length of a Degree of Parallels of Latitude ; with appro- 

 priate Tables ; by Tho. Jefferson Cram, Principal Assistant 

 to Prof, of Nat. and Exp. Philos. U. S. Mil. Acad., West Point. 



Length of a Degree of the Terrestrial Meridian. 



1. By direct admeasurement, and by other observations, it has 

 been conclusively shown, that the curvatures of the terrestrial me- 

 ridians diminish, as we recede from the equator in going towards the 

 poles ; whence the inference, that the earth resembles in figure more 

 nearly a spheroid than any other mathematical body. The spheroid 

 is the solid which would be generated, by revolving an elhpse around 

 its minor axis ; and it is to such a solid, that we shall assimilate the 

 figure of the earth in what follows. 



* The same artist informed me, that he was in possession of philosophical instruments, con- 

 structed by Dr. Prince's own hands, which did him equal credit, as a workman and as a philoso- 

 pher, and that they were among the articles upon which he set great value. They came to him, 

 (R. Banks, 441 Strand,) from the collection of the late Mr. Adams. It is my impression that 

 among them was a lucernal microscope. 



