CHAPTER XIX 

 THE PHANTOM PLANET 



IT was significant that during the solar eclipse of 

 August 21st, 1914, no mention should be made of any 

 search for the supposed planet between Mercury and 

 the sun. Probably the belief in the existence of such a 

 body has vanished from the minds of those astronomers 

 who form eclipse expeditions. 'Twere well it were so, 

 perhaps, for it cannot but be unsatisfactory to chase 

 a phantom. 



For my part, I have no doubt that Leverrier and 

 Lescarbault were mistaken when they announced the 

 existence of that intra-Mercurian planet which has 

 come to be christened Vulcan. Leverrier submitted 

 to the French Academy of Sciences, in 1859, a certain 

 error in the secular motion of the perihelion of Mercury, 

 which he could not otherwise explain than by supposing 

 another planet to exist between Mercury and the sun. 

 Then the astounding intelligence was laid before the 

 Academy that not only had the body been found but 

 that its discovery was actually made several months 

 before Leverrier had calculated its presence. The 

 finder was one Dr. Lescarbault, of Orgeres, France, 

 who happening to look at the sun through his telescope 

 one bright afternoon saw, to his great surprise, a 

 small round black spot pass over the disk, a circum- 



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