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From the National Intelligencer j pTTnF 
ON THE DEGREES OF EA 
TO THE EDITORS. 
Gentlemen—I have read « your pa¬ 
per of the 7ih October ” and 
form of the Earth, 9 ' signed X lern, ai 
m that of the 21st of the same month, 
"Pf silned 4 ‘‘ P R U fV’ JriLtedTn theX 
; [ional Gazette of the 21st of October,! 820, 
All I at present wish to remark on those 
essays relates to the principle inculcated 
by Pierre,and combatted by I aul and R r • 
namely, that a degree of latitude at the 
arctic circle being found longer than one 
near the equator does not prove that the 
earth is flatted towards the poles, but the 
contrary. Although this is contradicted by 
the most generally received opinion in 
the republic of letters, yet I undertake, 
with Pierre, to maintain that it is mathe¬ 
matically true. At the same time, how¬ 
ever, analogy teaches (and I admit) that 
the earth should be found greater in di¬ 
ameter at the equator than it is in the di¬ 
rection of its axis. 
To proceed methodically 7 ,1 cannot do 
better than, in the first place, to extract 
one of R. P.’s remarks, where he shows 
what constitutes a degree, viz. “ let it be 
well understood, that any arch of a great 
circle on the surface ot the earth, is the 
measure of &n angle contained between 
two radii, not meeting at the centre of 
the earth, but at the centre ©f curvature 
of that arch; and hence the greater the 
measure of a degree of latitude,the greater 
must be the circle of which it is a portion ; 
m «tber words, the flatter must the arch 
oe. this is certainly a beautiful truth. 
Now, on a tablet draw a line east and 
wiH ',n,r Pr f Sent the , e, l Uat0 >' ; C™SS it 
present' it* T a " d 80uth > to re- 
present the polar axis; and where thev 
«os s set the foot of a pair of dfviderl 
opened about two or three inches and 
describe a circle; then, on one of the 
IJ-iarter circles (the right hand one nortll 
* the equator) place a small Wax * ' 
°r Solt wine, fitting exactly on the quarter 
Clr cle,consequently containing 90 (W 
- ^ ® S 
