[June, 
326 The Form of the Earth. 
naturally to be expedited, differed in their results. The 
principal rivals were M. Borda and M. Bouguer. M. Borda 
made the metre 3’o8o7 of the “ Pied de Roy ; but 
M. Bouguer made the metre 3*0794. The latter gentleman 
it appears had friends at court, and, lest the learned men of 
the time should have any doubt on the question, M. Bouguer s 
measurement was settled by an Adit of the Legislature to be 
accurate (!) and M. Borda’s wrong, and thus the French 
metre was established as the most accurate standard in the 
world, but not by any scientific proof. 
Another experiment was carried out some years ago to 
obtain, as was supposed, additional evidence that the Earth 
was spheroidal in form, viz., experiments with the pendu- 
lum. The results of these experiments, however, have not 
been of such a definite character as to be satisfactory, except 
to those theorists who have already come to the conclusion 
that the Earth must be spheroidal in form because it rotated 
when in a fluid state. 
That the Earth is spheroidal in form is possible, but the 
evidence claimed as proving this is either mere guess or the 
arbitrary assumption of authority. The assertion that the 
Earth was once in a fluid state is a guess, _ disproved, by 
the faCts known to exist in connection with “ faults ” in 
mineral veins. That the Earth rotated when in a fluid 
state is another guess, based on no evidence whatever. 
That the surveyors and astronomers of the past proved that 
a degree of latitude near the Equator was shorter than a 
degree near the Poles is claiming that these surveyors with 
portable instruments, and during a few months, obtained 
more accurate results than had been obtained at Greenwich 
Observatory during a hundred years. 
The question as to whether the Earth is spherical or 
spheroidal is not one of very great importance, but the 
manner in which this problem has been dealt with in former 
times supplies us with an example of the unscientific and 
prejudiced manner in which some theories are considered to 
be satisfactorily proved. 
That the Earth is spheroidal has never been proved. 
That the Equatorial diameter exceeds the Polar diameter by 
a certain number of miles, yards, and feet is a theory only 
not corroborated by actual faCts, though certain assumed 
evidence has been cooked to agree with the theory. Those 
persons who can believe that the Earth has contracted, in 
spite of the evidence shown by the faults in mineral veins, 
occupy a similar position to those who assert that the Earth 
is a flat surface, in spite of our seeing only one face of the 
