1801.] 
eroy and VAUQUELIN, on Galvanifm. 
It forms the feries of the labours with 
which thefe chymifts have already enter- 
tained the Clafs, and was accompa- 
nied with fome new experiments, made 
with a galvanic pile or heap formed of 
metallic plates from eight to ten inches 
acrofs. It produced a lively fcintil- 
Jacion and a brilliant inflammation in the 
atmofpherical air, and in the oxygen 
Base 
Order of the Readings at the public Sitting 
of the Inftitute, held at the National Pa- 
face of Sciences and Arts; the 15th Mef- 
jidor, year 9. 
r. Diftribution of prizes and announce- 
ment of new fubjeéts for prizes. 2. Re- 
port on the Continuation of the Didtionary 
of the French Language, by Citizen AN- 
DRIEUX. 3. A Memoir-on the moral 
Writings of Cicero, by Cit. BoucHAuD. 
4. A Memoir on the laft fale of Wool and 
Sheep of the Flock of Rambouillet, by 
Citizens TessitrandHuzarpb. 5. Ex- 
traéts of a Memoir'on the Bronze of the 
Antients, and onan antient Sword, by 
Citizen Moncez. 6. An Hiftorical No- 
tice on the Life and Works of Jean Bap- 
tite Le Roi, by Citizen LEFEVRE Gr- 
NEAU. 7. Extra&t of a Journey among 
the Creeks and Cherokees, by Citizen 
Beauvois. &. Extract of a Memoir on 
the Tribunals of Athens, by Citizen 
- Levesque. g. A Memoir on the Bleach- 
ing of Linen, by Citizen SEGUIN. 10. 
The Alchymift and his Children, a Tale in 
Verfe, by Citizen ANDRIEUX. 
Notice of the labours of the Clafs of 
Mathematical and Phyfical Sciences, dur- 
ing the laft quarterly fitting of the year 9. 
The mathematical part by Citizen De- 
LAMBRE. 
Illuftrations relative to a point of the 
hiftory of the trigonometrical tables. 
On the occafion of the great trigonome- 
trical tables of the cada/ire, or regifter, 
of which an account was given in the laft 
Germinal, Citizen Prony, to whom we 
are indebted for the firft idea and the 
prompt execution of that immenfe work, 
read to the Clafs a Memoir on the Opus 
Palatinum de Triangulis, of RuETICUS. 
Thefe tables, the moft complete that have 
yet appeared for trigonometrical lines in 
natural numbers, had not been examined 
in all their parts with the fame {crupulous 
attention. It was foon perceived that the 
v 
Proceedings of Learned Societies. 
23 
tangents and the fecants of the laft dee 
grees required confiderable corrections : 
it was known in a vague manner that 
thefe correétions had been ordered, but it 
was not certainly known that they had 
been executed; at leaft, no trace was 
found of it in four copies, the only ones 
known at Paris of that extremely rare 
work. SCHULZE, in his Tables printed 
at Berlin, in 1778, ‘had copied all the 
faults of Rheticus, and had contented 
himfelf with giving notice of it in his 
preface which feemed to imply the impof- 
fibility of finding a correét copy of the 
Opus Palatinum. 
Citizen Prony had the good fortune ta 
meet with one in which the tangents and 
the fecants of the laft degrees are of the 
fame accuracy as all the reft. The title 
of the book is augmented with thefe 
words : 
Pitifco, Silefio, @c.”” The feven laft degrees 
have been calculated a-frefh, and this in- 
duced a neceflity of printing again ninety 
pages, which were known by fome dif 
ferences in the paper and the characters ; 
thefe laft being more worn, and the former 
lefs beautiful, than in the reft of the yo- 
lume. The Memoir of Citizen Prony 
contains the neceflary formule to fix the 
quantity of the errors, exclufive of fome 
tables of comparifon which prove to what 
a point of exaétnefs the corrections of 
Pitifcus have been carried. 
. To thefe refearches of Citizen Prony 
we fhall add, to fatisfy thofe who, fome- 
times, make ufe of the tangents or natural 
fecants, that thefe corrections, very impore 
tant when extreme precifion is required, 
become almoft always imperceptible when 
we can be content with feven decimals ; 
and, befides, the moft generally known 
tables of this kind, fuch as thofe of Sher- 
win, Ozanam, Deparcieux, and more an- 
tiently that of Philip Lanfberg, have been 
printed after a correéted copy, which 
will appear fomewhat extraordinary when 
it is confidered that Schulze and Vega, 
the editions of which are much more m<- 
dern, have again produced faults which 
had long difappeared from the tables 
printed at London, at Paris, and at Mid- 
dleburg. But ofall the authors who have 
given exact fecants and tangents, Lans- 
berg is the only one that bas every where 
eftablifhed feven decimals, the others hav- 
ing only given 6 from 84° 16’ to 89° 25’, 
and only 5 in the 35 laft minutes, : 
List 
6S Recens emendatus a Bartolomeo’ 
