Page:Littell's Living Age - Volume 131.djvu/325

Rh 1859 was not altogether satisfactory; the principal flaw has not hitherto, we believe, been noticed, except very passingly. Leverrier published in the latter half of that year the result of his investigation of the motions of Mercury, and at the close of his paper expressed the opinion that either Venus must be heavier by one-tenth than had been supposed, or else there must be a planet within the orbit of Mercury disturbing Mercury's movements. On this, Lescarbault announced that nine months before, namely, on March 26th, 1859, he had observed the passage of a round, black body across the face of the sun, which he thought might be the body whose existence was suspected by Leverrier. But he said he did not like to announce its discovery until he had seen it again. Considering how many years had elapsed during which the sun had been constantly observed by astronomers without this planet being seen, the chance of Lescarbault's securing a second view should have seemed so small, that one cannot well understand his reticence. This seems to have been Leverrier's opinion at the time. In "calling at the residence of the modest and unobtrusive practitioner, Leverrier said to him, in an abrupt and authoritative tone, 'It is, then, you, sir, who pretend to have discovered the intra-Mercurial planet, and who have committed the grave offence of keeping your observation secret for nine months. I warn you that I have come here with the intention of doing justice to your pretentions, and of demonstrating that you have been either dishonest or deceived. Tell me unequivocally what you have seen.'" This abrupt address, which in England would probably have led to the visitor's descending from the observatory much more abruptly even than he had entered it, seems to have been met very calmly by Lescarbault, who succeeded in satisfying Leverrier that an inter-Mercurial planet had really been observed. "Leverrier congratulated the medical practitioner upon his discovery, and left with the intention of making the facts thus obtained the subject of fresh calculations."

Three years after Lescarbault's observation, viz., on March 20, 1862, Mr. Loomis, of Manchester, saw a round spot on the sun's face. He called a friend's attention to it, and both remarked its sharp, circular form. Unfortunately business duties only allowed him to watch the spot for twenty minutes, during which time he found that it changed considerably in position. He wrote to Mr. Hind, who made the observation the subject of a calculation, and two French mathematicians showed that Loomis's results could be reconciled with Lescarbault's, on the assumption that they had both seen the same planet. One cannot but regret that the idea did not occur to Mr. Loomis of forwarding a telegram to Greenwich Observatory. Or, if he were unwilling to do this, he might have sent a messenger to one of the many persons who have observatories in and around Manchester. As Loomis's telescope was only a small one (less than three inches in aperture), he could hardly have failed to know of half-a-dozen persons provided with at least equal telescopic power, and residing within a half-hour's journey of his place of business.

A similar remark cannot certainly be applied to the observation last made upon this mysterious planet, seeing that the observer, M. Weber, was in Pe-chee-lee, when he saw the spot on the sun, and may be forgiven for not telegraphing to Madras or Melbourne, the nearest well-provided observatories. The news reached Europe by post. "It will interest you," wrote M. Wolf to Leverrier, on the receipt of Weber's letter, "to know that on April 4, at half past four Berlin time, M. Weber saw, at Peckeloh, a round spot on the sun, which was without spots in the morning and on the next day, as seen not only by M. Weber, but by myself and M. Schmidt at Athens." Wolf adds, with natural satisfaction, that the interval between Lescarbault's observation and Weber's amounts to exactly one hundred and forty eight times the period which he had himself assigned to Lescarbault's planet. Lescarbault was not so well pleased as might have been expected with Weber's observation. It appears that during the late war the Germans plundered his library and observatory, and having discovered the place where his instruments were concealed, destroyed them. "I should, therefore, have preferred," he says, "since I myself have failed to find Vulcan again, that either a Frenchman or a non-German foreigner had made the discovery." He admitted, however, that he was under obligation to M. Weber.

So satisfactory was Weber's observation considered, that on the strength of it M. Leverrier made fresh calculations, and it was presently announced to the world that probably Vulcan would again cross the sun's face on October 2nd or 3rd. Waiting to hear from colonial observers whether anything remarkable was seen on those days, we may be permitted to call