Indian Science and Technology in the Eighteenth Century: Some Contemporary European Accounts c10.24

c10.24

The nature of the refraction and its variation with respect to the heat, moisture and density of the air, would also be a very proper object of enquiry at Benares: The tables made by Cassini, Newton and de La Caille, are all of them different, and with respect to Benares, are adapted to very extreme latitudes: There is also reason to believe that the results at Benares would be very different from any of them and not only elucidate the general principles of refraction, but also be of service in the practice of navigation, especially about the tropics; if any ancient observations should be discovered, the refraction would be absolutely necessary, and even if they should not, it would have its use; for the climates of England and India are different, to depend upon reasoning from analogy only; especially when there are so many causes of variations and so few of them well determined.