Note 36 — LAPLACE.
Robert Grant translation
Mayer, from the principles of gravitation (Theoria Lunæ, 1767), computed the value of the solar parallax to be 7".8. He remarked that the error of this determination did not amount to one twentieth of the whole, whence it followed that the true value of the parallax could not exceed 8".2. Laplace, by an analogous process, determined the parallax to be 8".45. Encke, by a profound discussion of the observations of the transits of Venus in 1761 and 1769, found the value of the same element to be 8".5776.—Translator.