t796.] Important Proceedings 
Citizen Daubenton communicated the - 
plan and the firft refult of a feries of ex- 
periments, made in the National Mufeum 
of Natural Hiftory, upon feveral domettic 
animals. Their tendency is to make 
known the produce of the mixture of feve- 
ral ufeful animals; the’ leaft coftly re- 
medies, and the moft proper food for 
fheep ; the means of giving a gocd tafte 
and fmell to the flefh of tame rabbits, and 
that of improving, rhe »moft’ produétive 
breed of fowls. ¢ we 4 
’ Citizen Buache fpoke of fome iflands in 
the South Sea, which have been confider- 
ed as fabulous, becaufe not properly laid 
down by the eariier navigators, but which, 
from the laft voyages of Cook, Bougain- 
ville, and de la Peyrcufe, aétually appear 
to have an exiftence. In that cafe they 
are to he found by keeping in the latitude 
of thirty degrees and a third from the 
18oth to the 2roth degree of longitude. 
Citizen Goffelin brought together all 
that the ancients knew of the Arabian 
Gulf, and of the mobility of its fhore. He 
fhowed that the Ophir of the Hebrews {till 
exifts to the northward of Yemen; but 
that it is at prefent inland, in confequence 
of the retroceffion of the fea. 
Citizen Duvillard read the heginning of 
a great work upon benefit focieties (cai/zs 
@ «conomie) which by making a profitable 
ufe of the fmalleft favings of induftrious 
citizens might afford all the affifance fuf- 
fering humanity requires, and furnifh all 
the recompenfes due from fociety. f 
Citizen Delambre related his labours in 
the meafurement of the meridian. oo 
_ In the laft public fitting of the Academy _ 
of Sciences he had given an account of the 
delays, dangers, and obftacles of revery 
kind, which, in the {pace of the laft nine 
months, had prevented his meafuring more 
than twelve triangles, from Compiegne to 
Pithiviers. ‘ ‘ 
The next fammer was mbre fortunate. 
Four months fufficed to meafure the {pace 
between Compiegne and Dunkirk. The 
fteeples in the way greatly facilitated the 
operation. | 
It was more dificult between Pithi- 
viers and Orleans. The foreft affording 
no remarkable point of view, it became 
neceffary to erect .a fignal-houfe (/gnal) 
fixty feet high, and experience had fhown. 
the danger of drawing the eyes of the 
people upon fuch objects in revolutionary | 
times. 
a 
alfo annexed the engraved reprefentation of 
the fkeleton, which, we truft, will gratify 
@ur curious readers, q 
Montutx Mac. No, VIIz. 
635 
«It was refol ved upon, however, althoteh 
the protection given by the conftituted au- 
thorities was hardly found to fuffice. 
The operation became very laborious in 
the heart of the winter, citizen Delambre 
being obliged to go every day through 
three leagues of {now in his way to and 
from the fignal-houfe, and being alfo un- 
of the National Inftitutions 
der the necefiity of taking down his inftrue 
“Tents every afternoon. © 
‘Notwithitanding thefe difficultiesy the 
work was drawing to a conclufion, when 
he wa8 recalled, with an injunétion to fuf- 
pend it without delay. It was atthe’time 
when the danger of difobedience was great. 
Citizen Delambre, however, ventured to 
run the rifk. He did not quit his move- 
able obfervatory, till he had conneéted 
his triangles at Orleans and at Chateau- 
neuf. On the very day that he was put- 
ting the laft hand to that part of the bufi- 
nefs, the wooden tower, on which’he was 
ftanding, was blown down by a gale of 
hus did i with of a man of 
Me 
fcience to ferve his then ungrateful coun= _ 
try, make hin brave death in a variety 
of ways. — oi 
* He was not allowed to return to hia 
tafk till eighteen months after, happy at 
having brought it as far as the folid rocks 
of Orleans and of Chateauneuf. 
The {pace between Orleans and Bourges 
was that which had given the moft trouble 
in 1740; and the difficulty was greatly in- 
creafed by the deftruétion of the fteeple of 
Salbris and feyeral others. 
‘The winter came. Citizen Delambre 
went to Dtinkirk, ‘one of the extremities 
of the meridian, and meafured, with the 
greateft exaétitude, the height of a circum- 
polar ftar in its two paffages over the me- 
midian. ‘This operation can only be per~ 
formed in the months of Frimaire, Ni- 
vofe, and Pluviofe, becaufe it is neceflary 
that the nights fhould be fourteen or fif- 
. teen hours tong. 
The Memoirs of the National Inftitute 
contain am explanation of the principles of 
the operation undertaken by Citizens De- 
lambre and Mechain, in order to meafure. 
the are of the meridian, which paffes 
through France, from Dunkirk to the Py- 
renean mountains, and which ftretches 
along through Spain towards Barcelona. 
Citizen Mechain, placed at the other 
extremity of the arc, was *then making, 
with equalzeal, and with no lefs embar- 
rafiments, obfervations, which perfeatly 
agree with thofe of Citizen Delambre, 
On one fide the meridianis meafured from 
Dunkirk to Dun-fur-Attron, a diftance of tue 
bundred and thirty-feven thoufand foijes ; on 
4 M _ the 





