174 PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. [aNNO 1751. 



numbers of little figures dancing on ropes; a few small bad landscapes; and 

 some very odd pieces, either emblematical, or perhaps only the painter's whim. 

 Of which last the writer gives two specimens; one, of a grashopper driving a 

 parrot, the other, of a vast great head, in the midst of what seems to have been 

 intended for a green field encompassed with a hedge. 



The rest of this paper is only a repetition of that in art. 1 8 preceding, on the 

 same subject. 



XXI I. An Occultation of the Planet Fisntis by the Moon in the Day time, ob- 

 served at Mr. Short's, in Surrey street, London, April \6, 1751, O. S. By 

 Dr. John Btvis. p. ISQ. 



The whole matter in this business was to direct a tube so, as to find out Venus 

 a little before her ingress, and to manage the instrument so, as also to have sight 

 of her at the instant of her egress. And knowing that Mr. Short is never un- 

 provided with one or more instruments exceedingly well adapted to this and other 

 purposes, the same that he has described in Phil. Trans. N° 493 ; which, for its 

 easy removal from place to place, may be considered as a sort of portable obser- 

 vatory. Dr. B. intimated his intention to him the evening before; who was so 

 kind as to set up two of the said instruments, which he found rectified, and 

 ready for observation, when he visited him the. next morning. One of these, 

 placed near his clock, he intended for his own use, and the other was for the 

 Doctor. 



The air was of itself clear; but the wind, being in the north-east quarter, 

 brought such drifts of smoke, as much impaired the distinctness of Venus, which 

 however looked round. Several minutes before Dr. B. expected it, the figure of 

 the planet was manifestly altered; on which he called out to Mr. Short to hasten 

 to his instrument, which he did, though too late. The total ingress was at 

 10*' 39"" 30* by the watch. From his first perceiving the change of the figure, 

 to the entire ingress, could not be a full minute. 



He observes, that not a glimpse of the moon, then not 1 days old, could be 

 discerned; so that the business of securing Venus, at the instant of her emer- 

 sion within the field of the telescope, over which she passed in about 2™ 10*, 

 depended entirely on a due management of the screw, which gave motion both 

 to the equatorial or horary plate, and to the telescope. A little after 1 1 he 

 brought the point of the hour circle, answering to Venus, to the index, and 

 might then have seen her near the middle of the field, had she already emerged. 

 Every 1 minutes after he was careful to turn the screw so much, as to be sure of 

 keeping her within the field. At length setting his eye to the instrument imme- 

 diately after one of these operations, he perceived her quite emerged and round: 



