Autograph letter signed : Paris, to James Jurin, 1739 Apr. 20.

Record ID: 
193749
Accession number: 
MA 4241
Author: 
Maupertuis, 1698-1759.
Credit: 
Purchased for The Dannie and Hettie Heineman Collection as the gift of the Heineman Foundation, 1985.
Description: 
1 item (3 p.) ; 21.6 cm
Notes: 

The recipient was the physician and secretary of the Royal Society.
With address.

Summary: 

Making reference to several of the most important scientific figures and controversies of the time: Maupertuis thanks Jurin for enabling Pierre Le Monnier [who accompanied Maupertuis on his Lapland expedition] to become a fellow of the Royal Society; he writes that Algarotti is bringing to London for presentation a book just published by the Marquise de Chatelet and Voltaire containing their essays written for a prize competition organized by the Academie des Sciences; he refers to Cassini III's geodetic measurements [which confirmed the Newtonian hypothesis of the elongation of the terrestrial spheroid; and independently proven by Maupertuis on the Lapland expedition].