Pierre-Louis Moreau de Maupertuis (1698-1759) in Finland, 1736. In 1736 Maupertuis, French astronomer and mathematician, led an expedition to Lapland to measure the length of a degree along the meridian. The expedition included the French mathematicians Alexis Claude Clairault (1713-1765) and Charles Etienne Louis Camus (1699-1768). They set up their headquarters at Torino in Northern Finland. In summer they were plagued by insects and in winter suffered from the cold. From Vies des Savants Illustres du XVIIIe Siecle, Louis Figuier, (Paris 1874).