NEW PLANETS NEAR THE SUM 57 



that object been placed either as shown in fig. 2 or fig. 3. Hence 

 Professor Swift considers that both the stars he himself saw were 

 planets, and that he did not see Theta at all. The reasoning in the 

 last five paragraphs of the above essay would not be in the least 

 affected if we adopted Professor Swift's conclusion, that four and not 

 three intra-Mercurial planets were detected during the eclipse of July 

 last. Yet later Professor Peters of Clinton has indicated reasons for 

 believing that while Watson simply mistook for planets the two fixed 

 stars, Theta and Zeta Cancri, Professor Swift saw no planets at all. 

 This interpretation would account fully, though not very satisfactorily, 

 for all that is mysterious in the two narratives.] 



