(Paris, Imprimerie Royale, 1776). 4to. Extract from ""Mémoires de Mathematique et de Physique, Présentés à l'Academie des Sciences par divers Savans"", Année 1773. Pp. 503-540 a. 1 folded engraved plate. A few leaves with a faint dampstain in right margin. Otherwise fine and clean.
First printing of an importent memoir in which Laplace applied his work on probability to the study of the distribution of the orbital planes of comets in space, a remarkable work in mathematical- and physical astronomy. The memoir also deals with the figure of the earth.