442 Scientific Intelligence. 
“ Professor Peirce remarked, that the orbits given by Mr. Walker 
differ so widely from the predictions, that he has been induced to make 
planet Neptune is not the planet to which geometrical analysis had di- 
rected the telescope ; its orbit is not contained within the limits of space 
To 
38:4, proceeds to the accurate examination of the three distances 39'1, 
d 
at two fundamental propositions, namely,—— 
_ “1st. That the mean distance of the planet cannot be less than 35, 
or more than 87:9. The corresponding limits of the time of sidereal 
revolution are about 207 and 233 years. 
“2d. * That there is only one region in which the disturbing planet 
can be placed, in order to account for the motions of Uranus; that the 
mean longitude of this planet must have been, on January Ist, 1800, 
between 243° and 252°.’ » 
Neither of these propositions is of itself necessarily opposed to the 
observations which have been made upon Neptune, but the two com- 
ined are decidedly inconsistent with observation. It is impossible to 
find an orbit, which, satisfying the observed distance and motion, 1s 
jmately subject to them. If, for instance, a mean longitude and time of 
revolution are adopted according with the first, the corresponding mean 
longitude in 1800 must have been at least 40° distant from the limits of 
the second proposition. And again, if the planet is assumed to have 
present observations cannot exceed 170 years, and must therefore be 
about 40 years less than the limits of the first pr ition. Neptun 
cannot, then, be the planet of M. LeVerrier’s theory, and cannot 8°" 
count for the observed perturbations of Uranus, under the form of the 
ion | tt Neptune will not ace 
count for the perturbations of Uranus, for its probable mean distance 
