Encyclopædia americana. A popular dictionary of arts, sciences, literature, history, politics and biography, a new ed.; including a copious collection of original articles in American biography; on the basis of the 7th ed. of the German Conversations-lexicon. Ed. by Francis Lieber, assisted by E. Wigglesworth ...

CASSINI —CASSIODORUS. 559
bestowed on him the first professorship ment, and maintained this opinion in his
of astronomy at the university. A rle- work De la Grandeur et de la Figure de la
ridian had been drawn by Ignatio Dante Terre (Paris, 1720). In order to settle the
(1575), in the church of St. Petronia, in question, the academy was commissioned,
that city. In 1653, Cassini conceived the in 1733, to measure the whole length of
idea of extending and correcting it. In France from Brest to Strasburg. Cassini
two years he completed this difficult task, directed this undertaking, but was led into
the first firuits of which were more cor- some errors by the defective instruments
rect tables of the sun, a more precise of former observers. He died in 1756,
determination of its parallax, and an ex- at Thury. Besides the above-mentioncellent table of refiactions. By an obser- ed works, lie wrote Elemens d'Jlstrovation at Citta della Piave, he discovered nomie (Paris, 1740, 4to.), and Tables Astr.
the shadows cast by the satellites of Ju- His eloge in the MJYm. de 1'.dcad. contains
piter on the disk of that planet, when a biographical notice of him. —3. Cassini
they are between it and the sun. By de Thury, Cesar Francois, son of the
mneans of these, he corrected his theory preceding, born June 14, 1714, member
of the motion of the satellites, and deter- of the academy from his 22d year. He
minecl the period of Jupiter's revolution. undertook a geometrical survey of the
At the same time, he made a number of ob- whole of France, embracing the deterservations on insects, which were publish- mnination of the distance of every place
e(l by Aldrovandi. In 1668, he published friom the meridian of Paris, and fiom the
Ihis Eph-emerides of the Satellites of Jupi- perpendicular of that meridian. When
ter. In 1673i Colbert prevailed on him the support of the government was withto settle il France. He discovered four drawn, in 1756, Cassini formed a society
new satellites of Saturn, and the zodiacal for advancing the requisite sums, which
light, proved that the axis of the moon is were to be repaid by the sale of the maps
not perpendicular to the plane of the constructed from the survey. The work
ecliptic, and showed the causes of her was almost entirely finished, when he
libration. The laws of this motion, which died (1784), leaving many writings relathe deterrmined with much accuracy, are ing to his great topographical under01e of his finest discoveries. lie also taking.-4. Jacques Dominique, count,
wrote ol)servations on the Indian calen- son of the preceding, born at Paris, 1740,
dar. The meridian commenced by Pi- is director of the observatory, and memcard and Lahire was continued by Cas- ber of the academy, and is a statesman of
sini, in 1700, to the extreme limits of ability, as well as a mathematician. In
RoussillonY and, when measured 100 years 1789, lihe presented to the national assemlater, showed a difference of' only 21 bly the Carte Topographique de France,
toises. -le died Sept. 14, 1712, having in 180 sheets, now increased to 182, by
lost his sight some years before. Lalande the addition of the Carte des JIsseamblages
gives a catalogue of his writings in the des Triangles. The.Atlas Al'ationale is a
Bibl. lstronom. His first work was Ob- reduction of it on a scale of one third,
serv. Comnetce, lnni 1652-53 (Modena, prepared by Dumey, and other engineers.
1653, fol.). His Opp../stronom. (Rome, Cassini was arrested by order of the rev1666) contain a complete collection of his olutionary tribunal. He escaped with life,
earlier works. His nephew, Cassini de but lost the copperplates of the Carte de
Thury, has published his biography, writ- F1rance, which had cost half a million
ten by Cassini himself, under the title francs. There is a second reduction of
2limoires pour servir a l'Hist. des Sci- the large map, being only a fourth of the
ences (4to.)-2. James, son of the preced- size of the original, in 24 plates.
ing, born at Paris, Feb. 18, 1677, was CASSINO; a game at cards, in which
admitted into the academy of sciences in four are dealt to each player, four being
1694. After several essays on subjects also placed on the board. The object is
in natural philosophy, &c. he completed to take as many cards as possible, by
his great work on the inclinations of the making combinations. Thus a ten in the
orbits of Saturn's satellites and ring. His player's hand will take a ten from the
labors to determine the figure of the earth board, or any number of cards which can
(q. v.) are well known. The first measure- be made to combine into tens. The
ment of 1669 made the degrees of the greatest number of cards reckons three
meridian shorter towards the north than points, and of spades, one; the ten of
towards the south; whence it was con- diamonds, two; the two of spades, one
eluded that the earth was an oblong sphe- andreach of the aces, one.
roid. Cassini continued the measure- CASS'IODORUS, Marcus Aurelius, a