OF ARTS AND SCIENCES. 



65 



Professor Peirce remarked, that the orbits given by Mr. 

 Walker differ so widely from the predictions, that he has 

 been induced to make a careful reexamination of the obser- 

 vations. He has not only himself verified Mr. Walker's dis- 

 tance of 30, and the consequent angular motion ; but Mr. 

 George P. Bond, of the Cambridge Observatory, has also, 

 at his request, verified this distance and motion from the 

 Cambridge observations alone. From these data, without 

 any hypothesis in regard to the character of the orbit, he has 

 arrived at the conclusion, that the planet Neptune is not 



THE planet to WHICH GEOMETRICAL ANALYSIS HAD DIRECTED 



THE TELESCOPE j that its Orbit is not contained within the 

 limits of space which have been explored by geometers 

 searching for the source of the disturbances of Uranus ; and 

 that its discovery by Galle must be regarded as a happy 

 accident. 



" Mr. Adams, in his Explanation of the Observed Irregularities of 

 Uranus, considered two hypothetical orbits, in one of which the mean 

 distance is 38.4, or just double that of Uranus, and in the other it is 

 37.6 ; while M. Le Verrier, in his Researches into the Motions of the 

 Planet Herschel, called Uranus, after deriving some rough approxi- 

 mations from the consideration of the mean distance 38.4, proceeds to 

 the accurate examination of the three distances 39.1, 37.6, and 36.2. 



