436 
Proceedings of the lloyal Society 
utmost, tlie English G-overnment, in 1819, at the instance of Mr 
Davies G-ilbert, proposed to defray one-half of the expense. The 
negociations led to no result. M. Lefort gives an extract from a 
note addressed by the celebrated astronomer Delambre to the 
English commissioner, apparently the farewell note. I transcribe 
the extract from page 999. 
“ Ces tables, non plus que celles de Briggs, ne serviront pas dans 
les cas usuels, mais seulement dans des cas extraordinaires. Comme 
celles de Briggs* elles seront la source ou viendrous puiser tous ceux 
qui impriment les tables usuelles avec plus ou moin d’etendue. Elles 
serviront de point de comparaison pour tout ce qui a ete fait ou se 
fera.” 
Whether shall we accept this magniloquent praise or the refusal 
to print the tables as the measure of their value ? Even had these 
tables been all which they should have been, — all that was pretended 
for them, — the concluding sentence is preposterous. Is every calcu- 
lation in all futurity to be tested by comparison with Prony ? No ! 
Even away from the revelations of M. Lefort, the independent 
original computer would not seek to dip his pitcher in the well at 
the Bureau de Cadastre, he only cares to fill his cup at the small 
overflowing spring of conscientious performance. 
The tables of Prony cannot be printed without entire revision ; 
in such a case to revise is to supersede, and therefore I call upon 
the whole body of cultivators of exact science to shake off this 
incubus, to hold these tables as non-existent, and to face manfully 
the problem of computing decimal Trigonometrical Tables of extent 
and precision sufficient for their pioneers, and therefore capable of 
supplying all the shorter and less precise tables needed for their 
more ordinary pursuits. 
2. On the Elimination of a, (3, y, from the conditions of 
integrability of S. uaBp, S. u/38p, S. uySp. By M. G-. Plarr. 
Communicated by Professor Tait. 
