Among the instruments of surveying of this period which became practically obsolete in England in the present century, but which is most widely used elsewhere, is the plane-table, unquestionably one of the earliest instruments invented for measuring or recording angles. At the period 1570, when the Germans claim that it was invented by Pretorius, a professor of the University of Nuremburg, it was unquestionably in use in England, and it is mentioned by Thomas Digges, in his _Pantometria_, published in 1590, as a platting instrument for such as are ignorant of arithmetical calculations. On the relative merits of the theodolite and plane table authorities still differ. Throughout Europe great activity in the development of the practical applications of geometry soon followed the exchange of ideas brought about by the introduction of printing. Side by side with the important geographical discoveries of the age came the minor improvements in scientific instruments which rendered national surveys and geodetic operations possible at a later period. With trifling modifications the instruments devised by Durer, Newton, and Gallileo are in common use to-day. Gradual improvements can be traced in the application of surveying to military and civil purposes, to mapping the campaigns of Louis XIV. and Marlborough, and laying down the forfeited estates in Ireland by William III., until in 1729 the first national survey on a large scale, for public and private purposes, was commenced in Savoy and Piedmont by Victor Amadie II., whereon nine years were occupied. The method of large surveys obtained the name of Cadastre (Terrier map). It was suggested for France in 1763, but was only commenced in that country in 1793. The exact derivation and meaning of the French term "cadastre" are not free from dispute. Some authorities refer it to the verb "cadrer" to square or correspond with, all objects on a large scale, plan, or cadastre being shown in their true position and proportions, whereas in a mere topographical map similar accuracy is impossible, and certain features must need be exaggerated for the sake of distinctness. The _Dictionaire des Dictionaires_ on the other hand derives _cadastre_ (formerly capdastre) from the mediæval-Latin word capitastrum (from caput "head," because formerly people were taxed, and afterwards property) and defines it as "a public register, containing the quantity and value of landed property, names of owners, etc., and which serves for the assessment of the tax on property in proportion to its revenue." In the _Recueil des Lois et Instructions sur les contributions directes_, the _cadastre_ is defined as "a plan from which the area of land may be computed, and from which its revenue may be valued." This, there is no doubt, is the sense in which the word is used on the Continent, while in England it is taken as denoting generally a survey on a large scale.