found the Skin much less hard and firm then the other so that at the extremity of every Toe of the Young one it was so loose and flaggie that it might be made to extend and descend to cover half the Nail Which seems to be the case of which Pliny speaks But the Truth is that there is no probability that this can preserve its Nails as this Author Reports because that they use them only at the Point which this Skin cover's not We likewise observed somthing new viz. That the Epiploon which was as great and large as its internal Membrane and which immediatly touched the Intestines did invelope them and came round even to the Kidnyes having only the upper Membrane loose as the Name of these Membranes signifies We farther remarked that their Substance was not properly a continued Membrane but pierced by the light and like a Texture of very fine Fibres makeing a Gauze That the Kidney which was four inches long and two and a half broad was sprinkled on its External Superficies with a great many Vessells covered with the Proper Membrane of the Kidney That the Lungs were spoilt dry pale and full of Knobs That in the Eye the Iris was Visiblly plaited with some circular wrinkles which were the effect of the dilatation in the Pupilla happened by the constriction of the Membrane which made the Iris. This folding is a thing which is commonly supposed but which is not perceived without difficulty And it was so much the more strange in this Subject that the Aqueous Humour being very abundant this Membrane was not Subject to contract by dryness The Vitreous Humour was almost as fluid as the Aqueous The Tapetum of the Vuea was Gilded through the middle as in the other Lyon but it had a Verdure at the Extremities which we found not in the other although we thought it was to be there by Reason that the Ancients did call the Eyes of Lyons 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say full of Ornaments because that they found that green Eyes were most Beautiful The Retina was White and Opake enough to make one think that it would hinder the reception of the Species if it is True that they do pass farther The place where the Sight is commonly made was crossed by a Vessel filled with Bloud which passed also into the Optick Nerves where it made a â—…avitie and seem'd to form that Pore or Ductus with which some Authors do think that the Optick Nerves were pierced to give passage to the Spirits which are received into the Brain The Observation of the Vessels which are Visible and in great abundance on the Superficies of the Parenchyma of the Kidney which is a thing extraordinary affords us Matter for Two Reflexions the first of which is That these Vessels which are Branches of the Truncks of the Arteriae and Venae Emulgentes do easily discover to the Eye a Truth which we have already found in some humane Subjects by the injection of Milk into the Vasa Emulgentia after the having taken from the Kidney its proper Membrane This Truth is that the Branches of the Emulgents do not terminate in the Middle of the Kidneys as Higmorus following Vasalius has thought But that they are carryed to the external Superficies For the separation of the Urine which must be done by Filtration requires that the Blood be carryed thro' the Arteries as far as is possible to the end that it there find a greater Thickness of the Parenchyma of the Kidneys to penetrate and consequently more capable of making a more perfect Filtration The other reflection is that those Vessels which are not generally visible in the Kidney whose Substance appears Solid and Homogeneous towards its external Superficies which was smooth and even were found very apparent in this Subject And we thought it probable that this happened by some distemper and was Praeternatural in this Animal Either by an Inslammation or Obstruction which had caused these Vessels insensibly to dilate This being easie in a young Animal where the parts not yet hardened are more easie to dilate and the Humours being more agitated are more capable of effecting this dilatation Glisson who has observed that oftentimes the Branches of some Vessels are bigger than the very Trunck which produces them says that this may be caused by a distemper And experience daily demonstrates by the Pulsation which happens in Inflamations by the Glandes which appear in the Scrofula and by the Veins which discover themselves in the Eyes by the Opthalmia that there is a great many things which a Distemper renders visible and sensible by augmenting them or changing their Nature and making them to become hard and dense from soft and rare as they were Which we have observed in the Glandes which in some Gazellas or Antelopes have seemed to make the Parenchyma of their Liver which appeared not in others We vainly sought in the Stomach and Lungs of our Lyon some Marks of the cause of its Death which was told us happeened after the voiding a great deal of Blood thro' the Throat But we judged by several Circumstances which have been related that a Surfeit extraordinary and insupportable to an Animal otherwise weakened had made him sick For we know that sometime before his Death he was several months without going out of his Den and that it was hard to make him Eat That for this reason some Remedies were prescribed to him and amongst others the Eating only the Flesh of young Animals and those alive And that those which look't to the Beasts of the Park of Vincennes to make this Food more delicate did use a method very extraordinary which was they flead Lambs alive and thus they made him to Eat several which at the first revived him by createing him an Appetite and making him brisk But it is probable that this Food ingendered too much Blood and which was too subtile for an Animal to whom Nature had not given the industry of fleaing those which he Eat It being credible that the Hair Wooll Feathers and Scales which all Animals of Prey do Swallow are a seasoning and necessary Corrective to prevent their greediness from filling them with a too Succuleut Food The Explanation of the Figure of the LYONNESS THe Posture is such that it is easie to Remark what is most Particular in this Lyonness The Head is side-wayes the better to demonstrate the length of her Chops which was not short and well-set like the Lyons It do's likewise more distinctly shew the smallness of the Neck which made the Head to be shrunk between the Shoulders In the Parts which the Dissection discovers A. The Pylorus B. The bottom of Stomach separated from the rest and making as it were an other Ventricle such as is in Animals which chew the Cud. C C. The Vena Gastrica D. The Spleen E E. The several Eminencies towards the Basis of the Heart composed of a hard and tenacious
Feet in found only in Animals which do love and dilight-in Watry places where it is known that the Turky-Cock takes no pleasure In fine in the exact Description which the Ancients have made of the Meleagris it is impossible if it were the Turky-Cock that they should omitt the remarkable and particular things which appear in the Turky-Cock and which are not found in the Pintado such as are the way of displaying its Tail of dragging its Wings against the ground of extending and suffering the Combe on its head to hang of having the Neck rough and wholly void of feathers and of having a Lock of black Hair at the Breast As for what respects the Inward parts we found the Oesophagus as in most Birds ranged on the right side of the Aspera Arteria It was inlarged before its entrance into the Thorax and made a Craw of the bigness of a Tennis Ball when it was blown up afterwards it was contracted to pass thro the Thorax This contracted part measured two inches and a half in length This whole Oesophagus was spread over with a great quantity of Vessels which were not visible in the passage which from the dilatation that we have taken for a Craw passed to the Gizard this passage being of a Substance hardder whiter and more Nervous than the rest The Gizard was as in the Hen. It was found for the most part filled only with Gravel It s internal Membrane was very much plaited and easily separable from the fleshy part It s substance was like to white glue so that this Membrane being separated from the Gizard was easily dryed and waxed hard and brittle like Glass The Intestines were three foot long without reckoning the two Caecums which were each six Inches The Duodenum was much larger than the others being above eight Lines The Caecum's were not of a uniform breadth as in the generality of Birds but did go inlarging They were fastned by the Membranes of the Mesentery and received vessels therefrom like the other Intestines There was no Pancreas The Liver was divided into two Lobes which at the top had each a Cavitie to receive the point of the Heart The Cavity of the right Lobe was greater and deeper than that of the left because that the point of the Heart was turned towards the right side The lower extremitie of the Lobes was fastened to the Diaphragme which descends from the top downwards and to the Bladders which the Lungs form in the lower Belly of Birds In most of our Subjects the Liver was Scirrhous and filled with a great quantity of hard yellow Grains some as large as Pease and others less We found a Gall-bladder only in two of our Subjects In the one it was nine Lines in length and six in breadth It had a Ductus from its bottom which was inserted into the Intestine near the Pylorus In the other it was an Inch and half long and four Lines broad being fastened to the hollow part of the right Lobe and the Ductus was from its middle and not from its lower extremitie and inserted it self into the Intestine four Fingers beneath the Pylorus In the other Subjects which had no Gall-bladder the ramus Hepaticus was there found very large and visible It measured five Inches in length and was inserted into the Intestine six Inches beyond the Pylorus Towards the upper part of the Gizard there was a body of an oval Figure nine Lines long and of a dark red Colour and a firm Substance It had connexion with the Trunk of the Vena Porta with that of the Cava and Aorta and with the Intestines and Ventricle by some very visible branches Some Modern Authors have observed that Birds which have a fleshy Ventricle have no Spleen Yet we are of Opinion that this body could be no other thing than a Spleen as well by reason of these Connexions as of the Sympathie which it seem'd to have with the Liver because it was found that in all the Subjects where the Liver was Scirrhous this part was after the same manner altho' the hard and compact Substance of this body in the subjects where it was Scirrhous and its Figure so regularly oval might cause a belief that it was a Testicle but there were two other round bodies four Lines Diameter couched on the Loyns and fastened to the Trunks of the Vena Cava and Aorta which were the true Testicles In one of the Subjects these round bodies were single and fastened on the place of the division of the Iliacks The Air being blown into the Aspera Arteria it made all the Bladders to swell which received the Air after it had passed thro' the Lungs and of which there are some that do descend into the lower Belly of Birds it is observed that the Pericardium was likewise blown up This Remark may be of some Importance to discover the uses of Respiration and the Advantages which the Air being by this means introduced into the Thorax may bring to the Heart by the Compression it may there cause by the Impression of its Qualities by the reception of the Fumes which it incessantly exhales in the continual heat in which it is c. The Membrane of the Pericardium was not just fit and fastened to the Heart as is usual but was a great deal extended towards the Point making a sack or Appendix half an Inch long In one of the Subjects this Appendix was a great deal longer for descending between the two Lobes of the Liver it went to be fastened to the Gizzard The Aspera Arteria after having entered the Cavity of the Thorax had two small Muscles which were knitt to its Anteriour part and which turning on the one side and the other somewhat downwards were by several Fibres united to the Vessels of the Heart These Muscles were each almost an Inch long round like a Cord and about the thickness of two thirds of a Line We have found these same Muscles in a great many Birds in most they do fasten the Aspera Arteria to the Sternum The Lungs were of Spongious flesh perforated with several little holes as bigg as the head of a small Pin regularly placed as well full as empty and covered with a very fine Tunicle They were of a Pale-red inclining to Ash-colour being two Inches and a half long and nine Lines broad and five thick The Heart measured an Inch and half in length and an Inch in breadth towards its Basis it was very pointed The Aorta being come out of the left Ventricle was turned directly forward being still in the Heart and covered with the right Auricle so that it seem'd to proceed from the right Uentricle and crossed over in this place to descend to the right side For this same reason the left Carotide did likewise appear to come from the Heart altho' it proceeded from the Trunk The division of the Trunk of the Aorta which formes the Iliack Branches was an Inch and half
of which formed by the sides of the Ligaments were Convex and the third formed by the Tunicle of the Intestine was strait Each of the two Ligaments was not only Spongious as it is ordinarily in other Animals but they were hollow with a long Cavity in form of a Pipe which went from the Os Pubis where was the Origine of the Ligaments as far as the Glans The Vessells which were sent into the body of the Penis had a particular distribution For whereas the Artery Vein and Nerve do usually all three run upon the Penis there were but two in our Subject And the Vein after having formed a Net work and several Circumvolutions towards the root of the Penis did penetrate into the Ligament and producing a Trunk which running along the Internal and Superiour part of the Cavity sent forth several Branches into all the rest of the internal Surface of this Cavity The Structure of the Glans was yet more Extraordinary than all the rest Above it terminated in a point and appeared to be the continuation of the Ligaments not differing therefrom neither in its Substance nor its Tunicle Underneath it had two flat and almost circular Append ces placed one upon the other The greatest which was fastned to the Glans underneath was an Inch and half in diameter The least which was fix'd to the middle of the greatest contained but half an Inch. It had moreover two little Appendices like two buds about the bigness of a Line All the Glans was of a Colour like to that of the Inferiour part of the Tunicle of the Rectum which serv'd as a Case to the Penis 't was of a very dark slate Colour There were two Muscles serving to draw the Glans inwards They took their Origine from the Vertetrae Lumbares and passing along the side of the Rectum inserted themselves at the upper part of the Penis near the Glans Towards the middle they were interlaced with two other Muscles appointed for the Motion of the Tail and which served them as a Pully The Heart was seated in the upper part of the Breast being closed in a very thick Pericardium and fastned by the lower part of the Membrane which covered the Liver It s Figure differed greatly from that which the Heart generally has For instead of being extended from its Basis to its point its greatest dimension was from one side to the other being three Inches this way and an Inch and a half only from the Basis to the point The two Auricles which proceeded from the Basis were very loose and as it were hanging down The right had two Inches and a half in length to an Inch and half over the left was lesser The Vena Cava which as has been said had two Trunks proceeding the one from the right part of the Liver and the other from the left convey'd the Blood thro' each of these Trunks into each of the Auricles These Auricles as usually opened each into a Ventricle and at each of the Apertures which gave passage to the Blood from the Auricle into the Ventricle there were three Valvulae Sigmoides which contrary to what is usuall in this kind of Valve hindred the Blood from going out of the Heart to return into the Auricles performing the Office of the Valvulae Tricuspides Besides these two Ventricles which were in the hinder part of the heart which faceth the Spine there was a third in the fore-part inclining a little towards the right side These three Ventricles were communicated by several Apertures their Substance not being solid and continued as in the Hearts of other Animals but Spongious and composed of Fibres and fleshy Columns contiguous only to each other and interwoven together Besides the strait Apertures which were between these Columns there were others more capacious by which the two Posteriour Ventricles had communication together and with the Anteriour Ventricle The two hinder Ventricles as has been sayd did recieve the Blood from the two Trunks of the Vena Cava with the Blood of the Pulmonique Veine which was double there being one on each side For these Veins emptying themselves into each Axillary did mix the Blood that they had received from the Lungs with that of the Vena Cava to carry it into the right Ventricle from which the Aorta did proceed The Anteriour Ventricle had no other Vessel than the Pulmonique Artery This Artery as well as the Aorta had three Valvulae Sigmoides the action of which was to hinder the Blood which is got out of the Heart from re-entring when the Ventricles have dilated themselves to receive the Blood of the Vena Cava and the Lungs This uncommon Structure of the Ventricles and Vessels of the Heart must have some particular uses on which we will not declare our Conjectures supported on different Experiments till after having shewn that the Structure of the Lungs is not less extraordinary For the one and the other Structure is thus extraordinary in these parts by reason of the particular Actions that they have in Amphibious Animals of which kind the Tortoise is The Aorta at the end of the right Ventricle was divided into two Branches which formed two Crosses These Crosses before they were quite turned downwards did produce the Axillares and Carotides Afterwards the left Cross descending along the Vertebrae did cast forth Branches The first was distributed to all parts of the Ventricle The second went to the Liver Pancreas Duodenum and Spleen The third furnished Branches to all the Intestines Afterwards it was united with the Branch of the right Cross which descended so far without casting forth any Branches and both formed but one Trunck which descending along the Body of the Vertebrae gave Branches to all the parts of the lower Belly The Larynx was composed as in Birds of an Arytenoides and Cricoides articulated together The two Bones which do each make one of the Horns of the Hyoides were not articulated the one to the other but each separately in different places of the Basis of the Hyoides The Cleft of the Glottis was strait and close apparently to keep the Air a long time enclosed in the Lungs for uses which shall be afterwards explained It may be also believed that this so exact inclosure is to prevent the Water from entring into the Aspera Arteria when the Tortoises are under Water And this particular Conformation of the Glottis may be the Cause of the Snoring of the Sea-Tortoises which as Pliny reports is heard a great way when they do float sleeping upon the Surface of the Water The Sea-Calves which are likewise remarkable for their Snoring have also their Glottis and Epiglottis extraordinary close as has been remarked in the Description of this Amphibious Animal The Aspera Arteria which had its Rings intire was separated at the entrance of the Breast into two long Branches of six Inches each From the entrance of the Lungs these Branches did loose their
Alidade It is necessary here that they must be both well adjusted together at one and the same far distant Object This being supposed one observes first with the Plumb and with the Telescope fastned to the Instrument the Meridional distance between the Zenith and the Star proposed next one fixes this Instrument in the plain of the Meridian as in the preceding manner but in such sort that it may be counterturned and that if the Star be towards the South it returned as 't were for observing towards the North and one observes exactly the Degree and Minute of the Limb where the Plumb beats After this the the Plumb being taken off one applies the Alidade with which one observes the Meridional Distance between the Zenith and the Star counting for this effect the Degree and Minutes which are found between the fiducial line of the Alidade and the part of the limb where the plumb did beat before The first distance that was found being compared with this last shall be too little if the Instrument elevates and on the contrary it shall be too big if it depresses in such sort that the half of the difference shall be the error of the Instrument After one has known the error of the Instrument and that one is assured that it comes not but by the Telescope the shortest and easiest way is to let it alone and to have regard to it in the Observations but if one would correct it this may be done either by displacing the Filaments of the Telescope or by turning the Object Glass upon its Center so far as one knows by experience it is necessary for adjusting the Telescope to the Degrees of the Instrument An Alidade furnisht with its Telescope may be of great help to make this correction for this purpose one points to one and the same distant Object as well the Telescope of the Alidade as that of the Instrument Next if the error is for example of one Minute in elevating one sets back the Alidade a Minute or on the contrary one puts it nearer it as much if the error be in depressing and having fastned it in this position by removing the Instrument all together one makes the Telescope of this Alidade to stand pointed at the same Object as before after which you must turn the Object Glass of the Telescope which is fastned to the Instrument upon its Center till such time as it be found pointed to the same Object and by this means one may be assured that a right line which shall be drawn from the Object by the Center of the Instrument comes to meet the point B which we suppose to have been established for the beginning of the decision But for avoiding as much as is possible the refractions of the Telescope care must be taken that the Object Glass be well centred which may be discovered by making it reflect the Rays of the Sun because if it be well centred the little focus which it makes by reflection at a certain distance will be found exactly in the middle of a much greater round of light Or else one may observe that the two Images which the Glass reflects of the same Object come to unite in the middle of its surface After this preparation it will be to the purpose to fasten the Object Glass apart in a Copper Box pierced through its two ends and perfectly turned round in which nevertheless it must have a little play in such sort that one may a little thrust it from one side to t'other by three Screws with their heads cut off to hold it steady and this Box being exactly enchased into the Objective Pinnule one may make it turn upon its Center mean while the whole body of the Telescope remains immoveable and one may observe that if in making the Object Glass so to turn the Telescope always remains pointed to the same Object otherwise the Object Glass must be moved either to the one side or the other We thought it necessary to give all these differing ways of verification to the end that there might remain no doubt as to the great exactness which one ought to look after in Telescopes used for Pinnules or sights of Instruments ARTICLE X. IF the measure of the Earth requires precise and exact Observation it is principally for that which concerns the difference of Latitudes because the error of one Minute only amounts to 951 Toyses which is multiplyed upon the whole as many times as the distance measured is contained in the whole Circumference of the Earth For approaching as much as is possible to the exactness requisite the great Instrument represented in the fourth Plate was caused to be made it is of Iron strengthened with pieces upon the Arda of it as the Quadrant and covered with Copper at the places necessary The Limb which contains not above the 20th part of a Circle of ten Foot Radius is divided by Dragonal Lines even to thirds of Minutes very distinctly A Telescope of ten Foot serves for Pinnules or Sights to this Instrument And because that in the obscurity of the Night one could not see the Filaments that were in the Telescope they were enlightened by the upper end of the Telescope or by a hole made on the side The Plumb or Perpendicular was secured in a Pipe of Tin which kept it intirely covered from the Wind beside that they always observed in a close place of which the cover or roof was purposely pierced The Knee of Cassiopea augments its declination every Year about 20″ we were desirous to have chosen a Star which had been less changing as had been the bright Star of Lyra or some one of Cygnus but we had cause to fear that before we should have made our Observations the Sun would have been too near approached to these Stars We commonly begun the Observations of the Heavens with that of the heigth of the Pole with the Quadrant and every Evening about two or three hours before the Knee of Cassiopea was in the Meridian we took with the same Quadrant one heigth of this Star marking the Instant of Observation by means of a Pendulum Clock which gave half seconds and which was regulated according to the Diurnal motion of the fixt Stars and then forthwith found by Calculation at what Hour and what Instant of the same Clock the Knee of Cassiopea ought to be in the Meridian And after this manner in two or three Evenings the great Instrument was exactly pointed in the plain of the Meridian towards that part where this Star ought to pass and then kept it in this position because it is very difficult otherways to succeed in observing those sorts of heigths which pass very swiftly The Meridional distances towards the North observed between the Zenith and the Knee of Cassiopea In Sept. 1670. At Malvoisine in a place at a great Farm-House belonging to Villeroy seated on an eminence in the Parish of Chauqueil more South by
answer to the two extremities thereof It has also a third opening at the bottom of the Tube through which with ones Finger the motion of the plumb may be stayed Upon the plain of the Rule A B is fastned the Telescope E F which is of the same make with that which we have described for the Quadrant and tho all the pieces have been already represented in the first Plate yet we judged it not impertinent to represent it once more in another order and a bigger size But that we might not be obliged to repeat the Discourse we have put to it the same Letters A Painters Aesell serves for a support to this Instrument and for accommodating it to the inequality of the ground the Rule A B is arched underneath with two bows which bear upon the two pins of the Aesell that it may be easie to raise or sink the direction of the Telescope as there shall be need without altering the Aesell and when the ground happens to be unequal one may lengthen this or that Foot of it by the means of a rod of Iron which is joyned to it With this Instrument the level may he determined at one glance to a very great distance even much more than is set down in the precedent Table But there is generally one great obstacle upon the account of refractions which makes the Objects appear above the line they ought to be seen in For example in the second Figure let A be the center of the Earth B C it s ordinary surface and D I the tops of the Mountains we are to consider that the Earth is inveloped with an Atmosphere or vaporous Air composed of different Regions which are more subtil the further they are removed from the Earth but in such sort that the change is not made all at once but by Degrees the visual Ray which comes from a higher place to a lower as from D to I which passes obliquely from a more subtil to a more gross Air is continually bent in its way in proportion as it changes the medium which gives it the position of a curve line much like that of D F I but the Eye that is in I receives the curve Ray as if it were the Tangent I E in which it sees the Object D. For the same reason if we suppose another eye in D it sees the Object I in the strait line D G. tangent to the same bended Ray D F B And supposing that the two tangents I E and D G which are in place of the visual rays cut each other in H one may imagine that there happens the same thing as if the two Objects D and I were respectively seen with one only refraction which should be made in H. and which should be equivalent to all those of the true Ray D F I. The Third Figure represents Two Mountains of equal height but so far distant that the visual Ray cannot pass from the top of one to the top of the other without sensibly approaching nearer to the surface of the Earth and without being consequently broken or refracted in its way which 't is not necessary farther to explain You must always set apart all the irregularities which may happen every moment in the constitution of the Air. It will be enough for practise that one can inform ones self of the refraction when there is any and that otherwise it may be avoided in the Observation of the Level by contenting ones self with middle stations Divers Authors report a thing which we have often tryed which 't is convenient to note here that an Object which at break of the Day has appear'd in the Level and sometimes a little above it has afterwards when the Sun is up appeared below it and on the contrary after the setting of the Sun Objects far distant appear'd to be raised so sensibly that in less than half an Hour their apparent height has been augmented more than Three Minutes The cause of these appearances is that the coolness of the Night condenses the Vapours which descend to a lower place leaving the Air of the higher Stations mare pure then in the time of the day which causes a great Refraction on the contrary when the motion of the Sun has made a part of the Vapours to mount to the more elevated stations there must be less difference of the Medium and consequently less of Refraction We shall add here one Experiment which makes it appear contrary to the Opinion of some Authors that even at Noon day there remains somewhat of Refraction when the distance is great and that the visual Ray cannot pass from one place to another without approaching the Earth The last Summer being on the top of the Towers of Nostre Dame of Paris we pointed the quadrant towards the Tower of Mont Leherie and we found that the foot of this Tower was precisely in the apparent Level This was about Noon in a very Serene time Some days after at the same Hour the height of the Tower of Nostre Dame observed from the foot of the Tower of Montleherie appear'd below the Level line 11′ 30″ whereas conformable to the distance of 12796 Toyses which there are between these two places this Angle ought to have been 13′ 30″ whence it appears that it had Two Minutes of refraction in the whole This experiment shews what exactness one may expect from those who after Maurolicus pretend to have found the Magnitude of the Earth by means of the apparent Level they suppose that for this purpose one should chuse a very high Mountain near the Sea shore and having measured the heigth of this Mountain one tries upon the Sea at what distance the top of it can be seen But the refractions which are yet greater upon the Sea than upon the Land render this practice fallacious because they enable us to discover Objects at a much greater distance than the convexity of the Sea ought to permit and by consequence make the Earth appear much greater than in effect it is ARTICLE XIII IT remains now to Examine the diâ—…fering Opinions touching the Magnitude of the Earth And because we can say nothing of the Ancients but by Conjecture we shall begin with Fernelius who as we said at the beginning has estimated a Degree to contain 56746 Toyses It is without doubt surprising that by a manner so gross as his was he has approacht so near to that measure which we have concluded on from so many Observations the place which he took to be the bound of the Degree he had undertaken to measure was found by report of the People of the place as he himself says at twenty five Leagues of Paris whence he set forth And besides this could not be far out of the Road from Paris to Amiens because these two Cities are very near under the same Meridian and that he must have gone directly towards the North they commonly account 28 Leagues distance between