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The Library of the World’s Best Literature. An Anthology in Thirty Volumes. 1917.
Charles Marie de La Condamine (1701–1774)
La Condamine, Charles Marie de (lä ko
”dä-mēn’). A French scientist; born in Paris, Jan. 28, 1701; died there, Feb. 4, 1774. He is best known as having with Bouger and Godin measured an arc of the meridian on the plain of Quito, South America. The expedition lasted nine years (1735–44). On his way home he descended the Amazon, being the first scientist to do so, and the first man to publish accurate maps of the river. He is said to have introduced the knowledge of india-rubber into Europe. He wrote: ‘Journal of an Expedition to the Equator by Order of the King’ (1751); ‘Abridged Account of a Journey Made in the Interior of South America’ (1745); ‘History of Small-Pox Inoculation’ (1773); etc.