116 A CENTURY'S PROGRESS IN ASTRONOMY. 



planet. Bouvard himself was one of the first to 

 make the suggestion, but died before the planet 

 was discovered. An English amateur, the Rev. 

 T. J. Hussey, resolved to make, in 1834, a deter- 

 mination of the place of the unseen body, but 

 found his powers inadequate ; and in 1840 Bessel 

 laid his plans for an investigation of the problem, 

 but failing health prevented him carrying out 

 his design. 



In 1841 a student at the University of Cam- 

 bridge resolved to grapple with the problem. 

 John Couch Adams, born at Lidcot in Cornwall 

 in 1819, entered in 1839 the University of Cam- 

 bridge, where he graduated in 1843. From 1858 

 Professor of Astronomy at Cambridge, and from 

 1861 director of the Observatory, he died on 

 January 21, 1892, after a life spent in devo- 

 tion to mathematical astronomy. In 1843, on 

 taking his degree, he commenced the investi- 

 gation of the orbit of Uranus. For two years 

 he worked at the difficult question, and by 

 September 1845 came to the conclusion that a 

 planet revolving at a certain distance beyond 

 Uranus would produce the observed irregulari- 

 ties. He handed to James Challis (1803-1882), 

 the director of the Cambridge Observatory, a 

 paper containing the elements of what was 

 named by Adams " the new planet." On 



