386 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY. 



Stark,! 1820, February 12th, 12h. 



Steinhtibel, ..... 1820, February, 12th. 

 Schmidt, ..... 1847, October llth, 9 A. M. 



Upon comparing the three observations of Daugos, Fritsch, aricl Stark, 

 made in 1798, 1802, and 1819, M. Wolff found that they were satisfied by a 

 planet whose period of revolution is thirty-eight and a half days, or, what 

 is the same thing, nineteen and a quarter days, which agrees so remarkably 

 with the number 19.7, deduced by LeVerrier from the observations of Les- 

 carbault, that we cannot ascribe it to chance. 



Upon the supposition that the black spots seen upon the sun by the astrono- 

 mers above mentioned are bodies between Mercury and the sun, M. Wolff is 

 of opinion that the observations can only be reconciled by the admission of 

 at least three infra-Mercurial planets. 



The history of the discovery of this supposed new planet unfortunately 

 does not close here, inasmuch as an eminent astronomer, and that astrono- 

 mer a Frenchman, has presented himself boldly in the face of Europe, not 

 only to question the existence of such a body, but to charge its discoverer 

 with dishonesty, and impugn the very theoretical principles on which one of 

 the greatest astronomers of the age had foretold its discovery. 



M. Liais, a French astronomer in the service of the Brazilian government, 

 in a published paper, asserts: 



1. That the observation of M. Lescarbault is false. 



2. Contrary to the assertion of M. LeVerrier, every planet nearer the sun 

 than Mercury will be more visible, with telescopes, in the vicinity of the 

 sun than he is. 



3. That in eclipses of the sun the planet of Lescarbault has not been 

 seen. 



4. M. LeVerrier's hypothesis, that there is a powerful disturbing cause 

 between Mercury and the sun, is founded on the supposition that astronom- 

 ical observations have a precision of which they are not susceptible. 



1. In support of the first of these bold assertions, our author states that, 

 at the very time when the French astronomer was looking at the black spot 

 on the sun's face, he, M. Liais, was examining the sun with a telescope of 



1 This black spot was nearly twice the apparent diameter of Mercury. "At 

 noon," says Can oil Stark, ''this spot was II' 20 // distant from the east limb, and 

 14/ i7// from the south limb of the sun; and at 4h. 23m. in the evening it was no 

 longer to be seen. The appearance was rather indicative of the transit of a plane- 

 tary heavenly body, having its path included within that of Mercury, than of a 

 solar spot.'' Meteorologische Jahrbuch. 1820. 



This remarkable observation has been confirmed, says Mr. Carrington, in a pas- 

 sage of a letter from Olbers to Bessels, dated 20th June, 1820 (Corr. v. ii., p. 162): 

 " What do you say to Steinhiibel's observation of a dark, round, well-defined spot, 

 which on the 12th of February of this year completed its transit across the sun's 

 disk in five hours? If the thing is a fact, it indicates a planet interior to the orbit 

 of Mercury." 



The spot, called small and sub-elliptic, and six or eight seconds in diameter, seen 

 by Capel Lofft on the 6th January, 1818, was observed about 2ih. P. M., consider- 

 ably advanced on the sun's disk, and a little west of the sun's centre. It was seen 

 also by Mr. Acton. " Its rate of motion seemed inconsistent with that of the solar 

 rotation, and both in figure, density, and regularity of path, it seemed utterly 

 unlike floating scoria. In short, its progress over the sun's disk seems to have 

 exceeded that of Venus in transit." Monthly Magazine, January 10, 1818. 



