^94 ACCOUNT OF EXPERIMENTS 



« be the cause : but I assert with pleasure that they agree with the ex« 

 ^'^ periments made at Pello" 



2o In our days, the votaries of science have been taught to clear their 

 -doubts, not by argument, but by actual investigation. Seeing t\NO such 

 good authorities at variance, I undertook to ascertain, by means of fadts, 

 what was the cause of this seeming discrepancy, 



' S, As my results have turned out very consistent with Mr. le Gt.^" 

 til's operations at Pondicherry py I shall give a less detailed account 

 of my experiments than I originally had intended : not omitting however 

 any thing essential, to prove that they have been made with sufficient 

 care and accuracy, to deserve the attention of the Asiatic Society. 



"■ '"^^ ^ " ^ " ' ' ' ^'"' " - " preparation, " ' ''" " ■ ' ' 



"4. Much depending on the permanent length of the substance used 

 for the pendulum of experiments, I chose, in preference to silk, a sort of 

 string, seemingly of the same substance as that used by Mr. le GentiLj 

 both at Majiilla and Pondicherry. That gentleman describes it as a spe- 

 cies of wild plantain tree (Bananier Sauvage) which he calls BalizitrP'^ 

 It is easily procured in Madras ^ where it comes from China and the 

 Philippine Islands, 



5, The string which I used was about t^ths of an inch in diameter, 



and a length of 5 feet 5 inches of the s^me weighed 4« 718 gMhs troj 



» ' ■ — ■ 



iV When combining the results at Madras dia^ Pondicherry y to obtain the length of the 

 pendulum at the equator, the results were 



By Manilla and Pondicherry 38.9448.50. 



By Madras and Pondicherry 38.945390. 

 See the table at the end. 

 ■■ W Vol. L page450» '' '^S ------ ■ 



