*
[footnote] *Bessel, 'Allgemeine Betrachtungen uber Gradmessungen nach
astronomisch-geod??tischen Arbeiten', at the conclusion of Bessel and
Baeyer, 'Gradmessung in Ostpreussen', s. 427. Regarding the accumulation of
matter on the side of the Moon turned toward us (a subject noticed in an
earlier part of the text), see Laplace, 'Expos. du Syst. du Monde', p. 308.
The whole figure of the Earth is determined when we know the amount of the
p 164
compression at the poles and the equatorial diameter; in order, however, to
obtain a perfect representation of its form it is necessary to have
measurements in two directions, perpendicular to one another.
Eleven measurements of degrees (or determinations of the curvature of the
Earth's surface in different parts), of which nine only belong to the
present century, have made us acquainted with the size of our globe, which
Pliny names "a point in the immeasurable universe."*
[footnote] *Plin., ii., 68. Seneca, 'Nat. Quaest., Praef., c. ii. "El
mundo espoco" (the Earth is small and narrow), writes Columbus from Jamaica
to Queen Isabella on the 7th of July, 1503: not because he entertained the
philosophic views of the aforesaid Romans, but because it appeared
advantageous to him to maintain that the journey from Spain was not long,
if, as he observes, "we seek the east from the west.
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