of Edinburgh , Session 1867 - 68 . 321 
would be considered among scientific men in the cause of 
science. 
Yet something closely approaching the above has been enacted in 
the second Proceedings' treatise ; where little extracts of my last 
and completest book, are mixed up, generally without distinction or 
reference, with portions of my earliest, crudest, and now super- 
seded books and papers, on the same subject ; and with bits of the 
late Mr Taylor’s book, which bits I never accepted at all. 
To prove each and every one of the almost innumerable cases of 
altered meaning thus produced, would require more time than 
either the Society is likely to grant, or I have to spare ; but I will 
attempt to separate and exhibit a few, as samples of the rest; and 
also, point out whatever of new and important matter for our know- 
ledge of the Great Pyramid, the essay appears in my judgment to 
possess. 
LITERARY POINTS. 
a-) 
Among more purely literary matters, I would mention first, 
and with much commendation, the author’s reminder at p. 2C0, 
of both Cassini (in a book published in Amsterdam in 1723), and 
Callet (in Paris in 1795), having proposed “ that the Polar axis of 
the earth should be taken as the standard of measure.” 
I was not previously aware of their having so done ; and have 
not even yet been able to obtain a sight of Cassini’s book.* But a 
friend in London, who has kindly searched for it at the British 
Museum, informs me that the statement is not quite exact, — for 
Cassini does not allude to the Polar axis or semi-axis for the pur- 
pose, but merely to a general semi -diameter of the earth ; and he 
appears to have shared in the scientific uncertainties of most or all 
men of the period, as to whether the earth is flattened or elon- 
gated at the Poles. 
The case is interesting, therefore, as setting limits to the date 
at which modern science could have begun to single out the Polar 
axis as a unique length in the earth and appropriate to form a 
* After having failed in procuring the book at the chief public libraries 
in Edinburgh, my venerable and learned friend Dr Daun has found it 
amongst his collection of valuable French mathematical works ; and having 
kindly lent if to me. I can verify the account which follows. 
