I
have known such instances. The first, which attracted much attention,
was Capt. Kater's attempt to establish a scale of longitude in England
by reciprocal observations of azimuth between Beachy Head and
Dunnose. The result was evidently erroneous. But Colonel Colby, on
examination of the original papers, found that some observations had
been omitted, as suspicious; and that when these were included the
mean agreed well with the scale of observation inferred from other
methods."--In a letter to the Rev. R.C.M. Rouse, acknowledging the
receipt of a geometrical book, there occurs the following paragraph:
"I do not value Euclid's Elements as a super-excellent book of
instruction--though some important points are better presented in it
than in any other book of geometrical instruction that I have
seen. But I value it as a book of strong and distinct reasoning, and
of orderly succession of reasonings. I do not think that there is any
book in the world which presents so distinctly the 'because......
therefore.......' And this is invaluable for the mental
education of youth."--In May he was in correspondence with Professor
Balfour Stewart regarding a projected movement in Terrestrial
Magnetism to be submitted to the British Association.
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