60 JOURNAL OF PROCEEDINGS. 
the blue vault above us, and behold the small, pale, leaden col- 
ored nebulous appearing planet, suddenly flash out before the 
astonished eyes of the beholder as a system of revolving bodies 
around a planet and a portion of celestial mechanism more 
glorious and magnificently disclosed to wondering eyes than 
any other object of our solar system. 
During the infancy of the telescope, when it was in an im- 
_ perfect condition, the early observers with their crude instru- 
ments for a long time could not make out the true form of 
Saturn, the ring or rings surrounding the body of the planet 
was a subject of great mystery, and gave rise to controversies 
and conjectures for nearly 50 years after the invention of the 
telescope, before its true form and nature were correctly ascer- 
tained. 
One observer said he thought he saw it appear like two 
smaller globes on each side of a large one, as seen in Fig. 1, 
Plate 1. After viewing it for two years he thought he saw it 
change to a round figure without the globes at its sides, and 
some time afterwards to appear in triple form. 
A German astronomer published a representation of 
Saturn, in which the planet is represented as a large central 
globe with two smaller bodies, one on each side, partly of a 
conical form, attached to the planet and forming part of it, as 
shown in Fig. 2. 
An Italian astronomer imagined he saw it is shown in 
Fig. 3, a central globe with two conical shaped bodies complete- 
iy detached from it. 
Hevelius, a celebrated astronomer, made many observa- 
tions on Saturn, in which he appears to have obtained different 
views of the planet, approaching to the truth, but still incorrect- 
These views are seen in Figs. 4, 5, 6 and 7. 
Fig. 4 nearly resembles two hemispheres one on each side 
of the globe of Saturn. 
Another later astronomer thought that the planet was in- 
closed in an elliptical ring, but this ring was supposed to be 
fixed to its two opposite sides, as shown in Figs. 8 and 9. 
Fig. 10 is a representation of Divini, another Italian  s- 
