[ 3 6 7 ] 
not fo early as is pretended. In either cafe, Sir Ifaac, 
in the proportion above-mentioned, muft have posi- 
tively afferted what he did not know to be true, or 
knowingly have published a falfhood. 
Norwood’s book is intituled, Phe Seamans Practice, 
containing a fundamental Problem in Navigation , ex- 
perimentally verified , namely , touching the Compafs of the 
Earth and Sea , and the Quantity of a Degree , in our 
Englifj Meafures , &c. By Richard Norwood , Reader 
in the Mathematics. He tells us, that having obferved 
the latitude of London in the year 1633, and that of 
York in 1635, he meafured the diftance of the two 
cities, in his return from York to London ; and the 
account he gives of his meafurement is fo clear and 
ingenuous, that the reader will find no caufe to doubt 
either his abilities or his fidelity. 
The book was firft published in the year 163.6*. 
and hath fince gone through many editions, the eighth 
being printed in 1668. The title above-mentioned 
is likewife found verbatim in London’s catalogue of 
the moft vendible books in England, published in the 
year 1.658, twelve years before Picard meafured a 
degree in France; So that the authenticity of the fa<ft, 
that Norwood’s meafure preceded Picard’s, cannot be- 
doubted. 
The editor of the Connoiftance, p. 195, 196, has 
given a lift of different meafures of a degree, according 
to different authors, who had either a&ually attempted 
to meafure one themfelves, or had adopted the mea- 
fure in this lift for a true one. Among thefe, he has 
moft difingenuoufly put Sir Ifaac Newton’s name to a 
meafure of fixty Englifh ftatute-miles ; which muft 
imply, that Sir Ifaac believed this to be neareft the 
truth. 
