‘Sar SS. 
— ae eee ae 
‘saying, 
ings of the Grand Sanhedrim, conformably 
0 the orders transmitted to me.” 
248 
Law of Israel is perfect, and contains no 
anti-social principle. He apostrophises 
Napoleon as the bien-aimé, the idol of 
France and Italy, and devotes the Jewish 
nation to his commends. He finishes by 
‘I proclaim the close of the séf- 
ee 
For the Monthly Magazine. 
HISTORY of ASTRONOMY, for 1806. By 
JEROME DE LALANDE. 
(Continued from page 132.) 
PIAZZI1 has examined the 
M. question respecting the obliquity 
ot the ecliptic, which has for a long time 
afforded a suoject of dispute. The winter 
and summer solstices of 1804, gave hin 
7" less in winter than in summer; a cir= 
cumstauce which, in his opinion, eeeeae 
arise from the variations m refraction, 
but from the light of the sun being more 
refrangible than that of the stars; whence 
it would follow, that the refractions de- 
duced almost singly from the stars would 
not agree with the sun: and he is confi- 
dent from his own observations, that the 
refractions of the stars are the same day 
and night. He thinks that, from the 
zenith to the winter selstice, the refrac- 
tions can only be two seconds in error, 
which is net adequate to explain the 
differences from 7” to 8” found between 
the two solstices by the observations of 
Messrs. Piazzi and those of Greenwich. 
M. Delambre only finds 4” as well as 
M. Chiminello. In order to throw fur- 
ther light on this subject, M. Piazzi is of 
opinion, that a new element must enter 
into the calculations of refractions; he 
thinks that the obliquity can only be de- 
duced from observations made during 
summer, and he finds 28° 27/574, oS 
1800, which only differs by 0”3, from 
what M. Delambre found by his 12 sol- 
stices, making a slight increase of the 
refractions of Bradley, and duninishing 
by one second the latitude of Paris, 
which will be 48° 50’ 18”. M. de etl 
place supposes that the difference be- 
tween winter and summer proceeds from 
our taking the interior thermometer in 
place of the exterior, which in his opinion 
must have given ope true measure of re- 
fraction. 
Four useful collections of observa- 
tions, the Ephemerides of Berlin, of 
Vienna, of Milan, and the Connoissance 
des Tems, have been continued. 
We do not receive the same assistance 
from Britain, where, it seems, no obser- 
_vations are made any- a but at 
Lalande’s History of Astronomy for 1806. 
[Getr4,; 
Greenwich; and the three kingdoms all 
depend on Dr. Maskelyue; but it must 
be confessed, that the observations he 
publishes annually, compensate for every 
deficiency. ; 
The Connoissance des Tems for 1808, 
which appeared on the 15th of Septem- 
ber, 1806, under the inspection of M. 
Deélambre, 1 is the first of a new series of 
these useful ephemerides. This volume 
is larger, the subjects it embraces more 
extensive, and more fully considered, and 
the calendar includes fitteen months, in 
order to form a continuation to the vo- 
lume for the year 15. We find in it all 
the observations made by M. Bouvard, in 
1803, and 1804, with the instruments be- 
lonsing to the Tmper ial Observatory. 
M. Delambre has given in detail. the 
Measurement of the Degree in Sweden; 
which, according to him, 3 is 57,200 toises, 
instead of 57 422, which the French 
found in 178 This difference may- 
perhaps be explained, from their having 
at that time no means of verifying the 
parallelism of the glasses, since it was 
not till 1764, that B published the first 
edition of my Astronomy, wherein is 
contained a description of the proof- 
telescope. 
I have myself given in this volume a 
table of the proper movements for 500 
stars, calculations for the eclipses: for 
1805 and 1806, and the conjunctions of 
Venus. 
M. Delambre has also communicated 
to the public, through the same channel, 
notices of several useful books; formule 
of various authors, corrections of the 
solar and lunar tables, and a method of 
finding the configuration of the satellites, 
It also contains observations of Messrs. 
Vidal, Flauguergues, Scarpellini, Hum- 
boldt, and a Memoir of M. de Prony, on 
the calculation of the spheroids, and the 
elements of the three last comets. 
In the Ephemerides of Milan, we find 
observations on three new planets, the 
opposition of Jupiter in 1804, an eulo- 
vy upon Reggio, a large work of M, 
Oriani, for the calculation of spheroids ; 
some remarks by MM, Cesaris, expressive 
of his doubts respecting the parallax of 
the stars announced by Messrs. Piazzi 
and Calandrelli; a Memoir of M. Car- 
lini, upon refractions, wherein he gives 
some analytical formule, and several 
observations on the circunpolar ‘stars. 
In order to deduce from them the co 
efficients, he announces the tables of re- 
fractions which will be founded thereon. 
M. Oriani, an astronomer of ae 
ane 
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ay 
?, 
e 
WTA 
