The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1859-10-25
PRosArLn Exrsrrson OF Nxw pr...~s

SonAbLh EXISTENCE OF NEW PLANRTa =
Inc following account of interesting observn-
tions and deductions therefrom, by M. Lever.
rier, the celebrated astronomer. in extractad
irom Galignanis Messenger Of the 22d nit.
MI, Leverrer, whose fame as the thsoretc,l
.seoNe'er Oh the planet Neptune is well
kpown, mas written IA letter of the hiehest in :
ttfest TO M. Faye, the as tronomer on the snh
!eit oi certain unaccountab1e discrepaneies ha
,weeh the observations of the transit of Mar.
oT - H,ui .he oisE OF the sun and the results
me theory of the sun having been carafnI,y
leNtfeu, ana compared with the results of q oss,
onsetvatlons of that body taken AZ yarinns
,A.aeorles, the motion of Mercury,s disk
Win Fhat OF the sun, taken within neriod ~
iol years, viz: between l6g7 and isis M or ~
i'iiauei yet IN these transits there appears to
w progressive error, which amounts To as
80 ites hihe seconds of an arc in 1853. Now.
eau !, oe supposed, to exnlain snch a con-
SANITY repeated divergence. that snch men as
a@@.Iapue, @ Cassini, Bouguer ETC., should have
soiniAitted mistakes amounting to several
tuin @ u'eS OF tlme and mistakes too progress
Thiy ,"i3ihs from one period to another
.h MS would be absolutely impossible But
therei Is another curious circumstances viz:
''at ~ increasing the secular motion OF the
peTihellon by So seconds, all the above obser.
aatioIR are found to be correct TO Il second,
Iilu IN hSome cases even to half second. NJ
LeVefrer then proceeds to show, that in order
10 explain this addition of IS seconds we
snouid nave to increase the mass attributed to
venus by one tenth of its amount.
rms mas calculated to be the 400 OO0th mart
Oh that OF the sun, has been however found by
o'her calculations, rather too large so that in
cfeaslng IL IS out of the question. Hence nj
Leyerrier concludes that the excess of the mo-
tion OF Mercurys periheiion must be owing to
some other cause as yet unknown to u.s. and
thla cause he supposes to be either a new pla-
ne', or series OF small bodies circulating be-
tween the sun and Mercury NJ Fave. in
ion inn t-
Sciences, suggested that all the astronomers OF
Europe should now direct their attention to
tne smallest spots or the disk of the sun, in
order To discover whether there were among
them any minute planetary bodies which had
hitherto escaped observation. Such bodies
nau often been looked after without success
but this proved nothing, such researches hav-
ing been made at mere hazard now, however,
there were serious grounds for repeating
such attempts and total eclipses would
be the most advantageous periods for OBJ
serving any minute body in the imme-
diate vicinity Of the sun. A total eclipse,
he added, would be visible in Spain and Alge-
ria in July next. Suppose an astronomer at
Campyey, for instance, to prepare himself ex-
cIuslvely for such an observation, neglec ting
every thing else relating to the eclipse; if, a
quarter of an hour before the proper time, be
remained in a dark room in order TO guard his
eyes from the dazzling influence of the solar
rays, whose effects continue for several min
uteS, and cause vision 10 be indiStlnct at the
decisive moment, he might, as soon as the
eclipse had reached its maximum, observe the
heavens with the greatest accuracy, and per-
haps discover what had hitherto escaped no.
tice under less favorable circums tances.