The observations which have been made to determine the magnitude and figure of the earth, have not hitherto led to results completely satisfactory. They have indeed demonsrated the compression or oblateness of the terrestrial spheroid, but they have left an uncertainty as to the quantity of that compression, extending from about the one hundred and seventieth, to the three hundred and thirtieth part of the radius of the equator. Between these two quantities, the former of which is nearly double of the latter, most of the results are placed, but in such a manner that those best entitled to credit are much nearer to the least extreme than to the greatest.