250 
cules of bodies decreasing with an ex- 
treme rapidity, which expresses the ca- 
pillary phenomena, is also the cause of 
the chemical affinities; it produces an 
influence of masses, the effects of which 
M. Berthollet has unfolded in a new and 
satisfactory manner. 
M. Arago, observing that the light 
refiected by the Satellites, gives the same 
velocity with the aberration of the stars, 
hence concludes that the velocity does 
notchange, The same astronomer found 
this to be equally the case with terres- 
trial objects ; he made experiments with 
a prism applied to the mural quadrant, 
upon the light of the sun, stars, and ter- 
restrial objects, by which he ascertained 
that the volocity of light is the same in 
every circumstance. 
M. Halma, bookseller to the Empress, 
has undertaken a translation into French 
of the Almagest of Ptolemy. | 
M. Humboldt is busy at Berlin, in 
editing his Historical, Physical, and Po- 
litical Travels; he is also occupied with 
the horary variations of magnetism. M. 
Oltmanns assists him in his labours; this 
young geometrician calculates with equal 
zeal and intelligence ; he is about to pub- 
lish.a volume ofastronomical observations. 
M. Humboldt intends to undertake a 
journey into Asia. 
‘The city of Erlangen,seven leagues north 
from Nuremberg, and which belonged to 
the kingdom of Prussia, has been treated 
with the greatest possible mildness; for 
this protection it has been indebted to its 
celebrated university, which enjoys the 
special care of the French generals, 
The medal, annually decreed by the 
Institute, towards the equinox, for the 
best work on astronomy, confermably to 
my donation, has been adjudged to M. 
Svanberg, a Swedish astronomer, who 
has published the measure of the degree 
in Lapland, by means of which we as- 
certained the error, the causes of which 
are pointed out in the History of Astro- 
nomy for 1805. The medal represents 
the observatory, and on the reverse, 
Premium astronomicum Instituti Gallici. 
John Svanberg was born the 7th of 
April, 1771, in the parish of Calixe, thir- 
teen leagues from Tornea. He was ori- 
ginally intended for the church by an 
uncle, who took charge of his education ; 
but the first mathematical book which he 
had an opportunity of perusing, being a 
Life of Maclaurin, gave him a decided 
taste for thatscience. Assoon as he left 
the university, he wholly devoted himself 
to the study of astronomy, under the 
Lalande’s History of Astronomy for 1806. 
(Oct. 1, 
direction of M. Nordmark, a geometri- 
cian of great merit. In 1796 he was ap- 
pointed vice-secretary to the academy of 
Stockholm, and in 1808 director of the 
observatory in that city. 
The academy of Copenhagen proposes 
as a prize-question to ascertain whether 
there bea maximum and minimum in the 
changes produced by the perturbations 
upon the orbits of the planets, which de- 
pends on the nature of the orbits. The 
prize is four hundred francs; the essays 
will be received until the end of 1807. 
The Academy of Berlin has extended 
for two years longer the time for deter- 
mining the prize upon the variations of 
obliquity. 
M. Delambre has finished the editing 
of all the observations of stars and lati- 
tudes for the meridian. There is still 
wanting the calculation of the arcs, and 
latitudes for the second volume, and af- 
terwards the comparison of the old meri- 
dian, The basis to Rodez is bad: twenty- 
two toises have been added to the de- 
gree between Perpignan and Rodez, 
which departs from the progression. It 
is not the attraction of mountains, but 
the base which is the cause of it, and 
even the angles upon that base were bad. 
M. Bouvard has finished the printing 
of his new tables of Jupiter and Saturn. 
I have completed those of Mercury and 
Venus, which are ready for printing, M. 
Delambre has finished those of the first 
Satellite, with the new perturbations, 
M. Firmin Didot has afforded us a spe-= 
cimen of French industry, by a table of 
sines calculated to seconds, which are 
carried one place farther than those of 
Taylor. : 
M. De Prony will publish the Pro- 
spectus, to which M. Didot has added a 
page in folio for the natural sines to 
twenty-two places for the ten-thoue 
sandths. 
M. Barry, of Mannheim, announces a 
collection of observations. He placed a 
distant mark for his meridian glass. 
Atthe end of July, a report wascircula- 
ted that M. von Zach bad quitted the Ob- 
servatory of Gotha, which he had ren- 
dered so celebrated ; but asitwas through 
his influence that this building was ori- 
ginally constructed, astronomy will cone 
tinue to reap the. advantage of his zeal, 
influence, and abilities. His Journal 
has-been continued; it contains among 
other articles, the position of Eisenberg, 
at present remarkable as being the resi- 
dence of the learned Duchess Dowager 
of Gotha, 50° 58’ 3” latitude, and 34! 29” 
; east 
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