320 SPECIAL RESULTS IN THE UKANOLOGICAL 



not to be forgotten. Although, in his popular and highly 

 useful " Introduction to the Knowledge of the Starry 

 Heavens," Bode had himself said distinctly that he had taken 

 the law of the distances from a translation of Bonnet's 

 " Contemplation de la Nature" made by Professor Titius at 

 Wittenberg, yet it has been commonly called Bode's law, 

 and the name of Titius has been seldom mentioned in con- 

 nection with it. In a note appended by the latter to the 

 chapter on the Structure of the Universe ( 523 ), he says "If 

 we examine the distances of the planets, we find in almost all a 

 proportion between their distances apart and the increase of 

 their corporeal magnitudes. If the distance from the Sun 

 to Saturn gives 100 parts, then Mercury is distant 4 such 

 parts from the Sun, Yenus 4 + 3 = 7 parts from the Sun, 

 the Earth 4 + 6 = 10, Mars 4 + 12 = 16. But from Mars 

 to Jupiter we come to a departure from this progres- 

 sion previously so exact (!). Beyond Mars there follows 

 a space of 4 + 24 = 28 such parts; but here we find 

 neither primary planet nor satellite. Can we suppose that 

 the Great Architect has left this space void ? We must 

 not doubt that it is occupied ; it may be by the hitherto 

 undiscovered satellites of Mars, or perhaps Jupiter may 

 have additional satellites that have never yet been seen by 

 any telescope. From this unknown interval (unknown as to 

 that which occupies it) the space to Jupiter is 4 + 48 = 52. 

 Then follows Saturn at the solar distance of 4 + 96 = 100 

 parts an admirable proportion." Titius, therefore, was 

 inclined to occupy the interval between Mars and Jupiter 

 not with the one, but (as is actually the case) with several 

 bodies ; but he conjectured them to be satellites, not planets. 

 It is nowhere said how the translator and commentator of 



