39 2 
HISTORY OF MAURITIUS. 
accompanied with snows, and other attendants on an inclement season, did not cool 
his ardour; he accordingly passed from Roussillon into Languedoc, and from thence 
into Auvergne, where, in the midst of snows, he continued his scientific labours. 
He arrived at Paris at the conclusion of the rude winter of 1740. 
w On his return to Paris, he assissted M. Cassini in ascertaining the base 
of M. Picard, and the direction of the meridian from Paris to Perpignan. In 
the month of July he took the road to Dunkirk, and suffered fresh fatigues. 
Occupied during the day in preparing his instruments, and fixing machines on 
the summits of mountains, lie made his observations during the night, subject to 
the injuries of the open air, and frequently without the most common conveniences 
of life. 
“ In 1741, M. de Lisle, associate in ordinary to the Royal Academy of Sciences 
for the department of Astronomy, from the advanced period of his age, demanded 
his retreat; M. Fouchy passed from the place of assistant to that of associate, and 
the Abbe de la Caille was chosen by the Academy to replace M. de Fouchy. M. 
de la Caille was received in the month of May, and appeared for the first time with 
great eclat in that illustrious Society, by reading, at his introduction, a memoir on 
the calculation of the differences in spherical trigonometry ;—a most profound and 
elaborate work. 
“ He presented the Academy the report of an eclipse of the moon, which he had 
observed at the Hermitage on the mountain of St. Victor, near Aix in Provence, 
the 13th of January, 1740. This report was received with great pleasure, as the 
eclipse had not been observed at Paris, on account of the cloudy weather. 
" His admission into the Academy was the only recompence the Abbe de la 
Caille received for the part he took in forming the meridian; he did not obtain a 
pensionary gratification till after his return from the Cape. 
“ Before the end of 1741, he published his Elements of Mathematics, and they 
are considered as a chef d’oeuvre of perspicuity and precision in the learned world. 
Various editions of them have appeared in France, and they have been translated 
into all the principal languages of Europe. 
<f In 1742, a comet appeared in the months of March, April, and May, and the 
Abbe de la Caille composed a memoir on its apparition and its course. In the same 
year he also formed another memoir, containing a method to find the place of the 
the Sun’s apogee. 
