L. Swift—Intra- Mercurial Planets. 3138 
sky and the bright twilight in the east, so as to obtain as nearly 
as possible the conditions of sky-illumination which existed at 
the time of the eclipse. I have a very distinct recollection 
in respect to the brilliancy of the stars which I saw, an 
observing when the approaching daylight had reduced the 
light of certain stars which were east of the sun at the time of 
the total eclipse, so as to be just visible in the telescope as they 
were then, I have been enabled to form a still more definite 
Opinion of the relative brilliancy of @ Cancri, the two new 
objects which I observed, and ¢ Cancri. The fainter of the 
two planets, that near @ Cancri, was certainly brighter than 
Cancri, and much more than a magnitude brighter than its 
neighboring star. 
ArT. XXXVII.—Letter from Mr. Lewis Swit, relating to the 
discovery of Intra-Mercurial Planets, (Communicated to this 
Journal by Admiral Joan RopeErs, United States Naval 
Observatory, Washington, D. C.) 
N. Y., Aug. 5th, 1878. 
BrFore preparing a report of my observations of the total 
eclipse of July 29th, as observed at Denver, I hasten to lay 
before you the facts in detail of my supposed discovery of an 
itra-Mercurial planet. 
Having a comet eye-piece which far surpasses all others that 
have ever come under my notice, I, before leaving home, 
decided to devote two minutes of totality to searching for the 
hypothetical Vulean. It gives, with my four and a half achro- 
matic, a power of twenty-five, and has a field of 1° 30’, flat 
and sharp to the edge. About one minute after totality I 
observed two stars by estimation 8° southwest of the sun, 
pining toward the sun, of about the fifth magnitude, or what 
estimated at the time, as bright through the telescope as 
Polaris is to the naked eye. How much allowance ought to 
be made in estimating magnitudes so close to a totally eclipsed 
