Dr. Herschel’s Observations , &c. 273 
that it was flattened at the poles at least as much as Jupiter, I 
was insensibly diverted from a more critical attention to the 
rest of the figure. Prepossessed with its being spheroidical, I 
measured the equatorial and polar diameters in the year 1789, 
and supposed there could be no other particularity to remark 
in the figure of the planet. When I perceived a certain irre- 
gularity in other parts of the body, it was generally ascribed 
to the interference of the ring, which prevents a complete view 
of its whole contour ; and in this error I might still have 
remained, had not a late examination of the powers of my 10- 
feet telescope convinced me that I ought to rely with the 
greatest confidence upon the truth of its representations of the 
most minute objects I inspected. 
The following observations, in which the singular figure of 
Saturn is fully investigated, contain many remarks on the rest 
of the appearances that may be seen when this beautiful planet 
is examined with attention ; and though they are not imme- 
diately necessary to my present subject, I thought it right to 
retain them, as they show the degree of distinctness and pre- 
cision of the action of the telescope, and the clearness of the 
atmosphere at the time of observation. 
April 12, 1805. With a new 7-feet mirror of extraordinary 
distinctness, I examined the planet Saturn. The ring reflects 
more light than the body, and with a power of 570 the colour 
of the body becomes yellowish, while that of the ring remains 
more white. This gives us an opportunity to distinguish the 
ring from the body, in that part where it crosses the disk, by 
means of the difference in the colour of the reflected light. I 
saw the quintuple belt, and the flattening of the body at the 
MDCCCV. N 11 
