Measurement of three Degrees of the Meridian. 325 
the use of new instruments, similar to those which had recently 
been used in France, and of which the National Institute made 
a handsome present to the Swedish Academy. The results of 
this new undertaking, which terminated in 1803, were drawn 
up by M. Svanberg, and are highly interesting, by their ex- 
actness, by the perspicuity of the details, and even a certain 
degree of novelty given to the subject by the arrangement 
adopted by the learned author M. Svanberg. 
These new measures were found to confirm, in a remark- 
able manner, the general results of those which had preceded, 
and gave very nearly the same proportion for the eccentricity 
and other dimensions of the globe, so that there would not 
have remained the smallest doubt respecting the figure of the 
earth being flattened at the poles, had there not been a fourth 
measurement performed in England at the same time as that 
undertaken in Lapland, the results of which were entirely the 
reverse. This measurement, which comprised an arc of 2 0 go', 
was undertaken by Lieut. Col. Mudge, Fellow of the Royal 
Society, with instruments of the most perfect construction that 
had ever yet been finished by any artist, contrived and executed 
for that express purpose, by the celebrated Ramsden. The 
details of the observations and other operations of, Lieut. 
Col. Mudge, may be seen in the volume of the Philosophical 
Transactions for the year 1803; and one cannot but admire 
the beauty and perfection of the instruments employed by that 
skilful observer, as well as the scrupulous care bestowed on 
every part of the service in which he was engaged. Bengal 
lights were employed on this occasion, as objects at the several 
stations, and their position appears to have been determined 
with the utmost precision by the theodolite of Ramsden, which 
mdcccxii. U u 
