Page:History of the Royal Astronomical Society (1923).djvu/115

 1840-50] ROYAL ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY 95 course of his sweeps, and he made the note " appears to have a disc," he was not sufficiently interested to verify it on the first opportunity. We may agree he did not deserve to find it. It is always a pity when fortune favours the slothful and nerveless. While he continued his slow work, Galle, at Berlin, following Le Verrier's directions, and with the advantage of a good map, found it on the first night of his search, within a degree of the place assigned. Thereupon Herschel wrote to the Aihenceum, publicly introducing Adams's name for the first time, and immediately after Challis published in the same journal an account of his search. The Academy. The French might adopt for themselves the saying, " If it be a sin to covet honour, I am the most offending soul alive." Le Verrier's feat was in direct line with their most illustrious tradition. The direct consequence of Herschel's and Challis's statements was simply not accepted. They were not willing that the newcomer should have any share in the glory. Airy had written to Le Verrier in June and he had said no word of this. Then Airy wrote to Le Verrier again. Adams apparently did exist, but was referred to only in a cryptic way, as though an unpleasing official obligation would compel some perfunctory public reference to him, which Le Verrier must not misinterpret. Airy was sur- prised that his own name entered at all in the discussions that followed in the sessions of the Academy. " The introduction of my name appears somewhat strange. I have made no public statement whatever regarding the new planet. I have written on it to no foreigner whatever excepting M. Le Verrier himself, and my letters to him (containing some historical statements) were intended to have the most friendly character." In remarking on the course of events in the Account read before the Society, he says, " It will be readily understood that I do not [quote this letter] as a testi- mony to my own sagacity." If he supposed, as he seems to have done, that Adams might be dropped into an oubliette, of which the history of science has some grim stories, it showed very little sagacity. The French were not under any delusion about it. They saw their great personal and national achievement assailed, and they were not willing to share it in any degree. There followed an excited session of the Academy, in which Arago's speech may be taken as fairly voicing the feeling. He denied Adams any title whatever to be referred to in connection with the discovery, and personally pledged himself to use no name except Le Verrier's Planet. The wilder talk which passed there and outside, especially in the National newspaper, was expressly disowned by both Arago and Le Verrier. The Society's Meeting. The crisis arose and matured, and the