NEW PLANETS NEAR THE SUN. 53 



he only swept as far as the star he mistook for Zeta, and, as 

 the accompanying figure shows, Zeta was beyond that star 

 on the west. 1 



Fig. 4 represents the apparent result of the observations 

 made by Professors Watson and Swift, if all the observations 

 are regarded as trustworthy. The six stars shown in the 

 figure were probably the six referred to in the preceding 

 paragraph. The two unnamed ones are well-known red stars. 



JjCt it be noticed, that we cannot reject planet i, with- 

 out rejecting all Watson's observations. We cannot reject 

 planet 2, without rejecting all Swift's observations. We cannot 

 set this planet to the left of Theta without throwing doubt on 

 Watson's observations. If Watson swept over Theta west- 

 ward without seeing 2, Swift must have made some mistake 

 as yet unexplained. As for planet 3, if we admit the possi- 

 bility that this object really was Zeta, we must admit also 

 the possibility that the object marked as planet i was really 

 Theta, or rather we should have to do so, were it not that 

 Watson saw Theta also, and (I suppose) in the same field 

 of view, since he speaks confidently of the inferiority of 

 Theta in brightness. 



It should further be noticed, that though Swift's and 

 Watson's observations by no means agree in details, they do 

 in reality support each other (unless Watson should definitely 

 assert that no star as bright as Theta existed either to the 

 west or to the east of that star, at the distance indicated 

 by Swift.) For they agree in indicating the existence of 

 small planets near the sun, such as can only be seen with 

 the telescope. 



On the other hand, it is to be noted that other observers 

 failed to see any of these bodies, though they looked 



1 It may be necessary, perhaps, to explain to some why the 

 western side is on the right in the little maps illustrating this paper, 

 and not, as usual with maps, on the left. We are supposed to look 

 down towards the earth in the case of a terrestrial map, and to look up 

 from the earth in the case of a celestial map, and naturally right and 

 left for the former attitude become respectively left and right for the 

 latter. 



