NATURAL PHILOSOPHY, CHEMISTRY, 



AND 



THE ARTS. 



SUPPLEMENT TO VOL. XXXIIL 



ARTICLE I. 



Observations on the Measurement of three Degrees of the Me- 

 ridian, conducted in England, ly Lieut. Col. lyilliam Mudge. 

 By Don Joseph Rodriguez. From the Philosophical 

 Transactions for 1812, p. 321. 



THE determination of the figure and magnitude of the earth Problem. To 

 has at all times excited the curiosity of mankind, and the a-certain the 

 1 • <- I 1 1 , 1 figue and 



history ot the several attempts made by astronomers to solve magnitude of 



this problem might be traced to the most remote antiquity, ttieeitrth 

 But the details of the methods pursued by the ancients on this 

 subject being extremely vague, and their results expressed in 

 measures of which we do not know the relation to our own, 

 in fact give us very little assistance in learning either the figure 

 or dimensions of our globe. 



It was not till the revival of science in Europe, that the was consi<?ered 

 two great philosophers, Huyghens and Newton, first engaged I'v Huygheni 

 in the consideration of this question, and reduced to tlie known ^ * 



laws of mechanics, the principles on which the figure of the 

 earth should be determined. 



They demonstrated, that the rotatory motion should occasion as determina- 



difFerences in the force of gravity in different latitudes, and ^'^ ^y ?"^"'*- 

 o J ' ing to Its ro- 



consequently, that parts of the earth in the neighbourhood of tation ; 

 the equator should be more elevated than those near the poles. 

 Supplement.— Vol-, XXXIIJ. No. 155. Y The 



