Year: 1878

After twenty years Of dispute complicated
by many doubtful and conflicting obscrva-
tons the intra-Mercurial planet discovered
by the Partisan physician, Lescarbault, will
probably now have to be admitted to full
standing among the planets Ever since lie
Verrier completed his demonstration Of the
existence of a disturbing body somewhere be-
tween Mercury and the sun, not a few nstron-
omers have been convinced that favorable
opportunity was only necessary TO verify by
sight the evidence of lnathcmatics Among
these was Professor Watson, whose conf
dcnce was so strong that he won't to Colorado
determined to make the search for Vulcan his
chief business. He said to a townsman on
his return II was satisfied that there was a
planet within the orbit of Mercury, just as l
am satisfied that there is one outside of the
orbit of Neptune. The perturbations of those
planets and some other phenomena, cannot
be explained on any other hypothesis. So
when 1 went there l fixed on my plan and
stuck to it. determined to sweep south of
the sun, and to keep within a small space.
We had but three and one.h half minutes, and
the time was too short to try to get over too
great space. 1 meant to search that much
thoroughly, and so reduce the amount for fu-
ture astronomers should not succeed. 1t
was on the fifth sweep that I saw the OBJ
ject."


In MS report 10 lNeuF AululEhl ltOubGIh Du-
perintendent Of the United States Naval OBJ
servatory, Professor Watson says Il have
the honor to report that at the time OF totali-
ty observed a star Of the four and a half
magnitude in r. A. Sh. 2Gm. dec. IS north,
which is feel convinced, an intra- -Mercurial
planet. l observed with a power of forty
five and did not have time to change the pow
er so as to enlarge the disk. There is no
known star in the position observed and l
did not see any elongation, such as ought to
exist in the case Of n comet very near the sun.
l will hereafter report to you fully in regard
TO observations made. The appearance of
the object observed was that of a ruddy stair
OF the four and half magnitude The meth
cd which l adopted prevents the possibility
of error from wrong circle readings besides
l had memorzed the Washington chart of
the region and no such star was marked
thereon. by comparison with the neighbor-
ing stars on Argelanders scale, the magni-
tude of the planet would be the fifth, al
though my direct estimate at the time of the
observation was four and half as stated"


Speaking of the discovery, the English AS
tronomer. Mr.. Lockyer, said that he did'not
look for Vulcan and did not see it, though he
believed in lie Nerrier's prophecy that it
would be found Mt some time. He added
1--WE may rely upon Professors Watson's
statement that it is not n comet. and it is GER
tainly not star, therefore it must be plan
ct, and, from its position an intra- -Mercurial
one


Much to Professor Watson's delight his dis
covery was in a measure confirmed by that of
Mr.. Lewis Swift, of Rochester, who was at
neighboring station. Mr.. Swift's observa-
ton seems to have been, in a sense, acciden-
tai, yet there is no reason to question its sci
entific value. In.giving an account of his dis
covery to the Rochester Democrnt, Mr.. Swift
says About one minute after totality two
stars caught my eye about three degrees, by
estimation, southwest of the sun. I saw
them twice and attempted third observation,
but a small cloud obscured the locality The
stars were both of the fifth magnitude, and
but one is on the chart of the heavens This
star recognized as Theta in Cancer The
two stars were about eight minutes apart.
There is no such confguration Of stars in the
constellation of Cancer. / have no doubt
that the unknown star is an a-Mercurial
planet, and am also inclined to believe that
there may be more than one such planet.
Scientific american.