De Vico's observation of July 12, 1837 (_Observatory_, 2-424).
_L'Annee Scientifique_, 1865-16:
That another amateur astronomer, M. Coumbray, of Constantinople, had
written to Leverrier, that, upon the 8th of March, 1865, he had seen a
black point, sharply outlined, traverse the disk of the sun. It detached
itself from a group of sun spots near the limb of the sun, and took 48
minutes to reach the other limb. Figuring upon the diagram sent by M.
Coumbray, a central passage would have taken a little more than an hour.
This observation was disregarded by Leverrier, because his formula
required about four times that velocity. The point here is that these
other observations are as authentic as those that Leverrier included;
that, then, upon data as good as the data of "Vulcan," there must be
other "Vulcans"--the heroic and defiant disregard, then, of trying to
formulate one, omitting the others, which, by orthodox doctrine, must
have influenced it greatly, if all were in the relatively narrow space
between Mercury and the sun.
Observation upon another such body, of April 4, 1876, by M. Weber, of
Berlin. As to this observation, Leverrier was informed by Wolf, in
August, 1876 (_L'Annee Scientifique_, 1876-7). It made no difference, so
far as can be known, to this notable positivist.
Two other observations noted by Hind and Denning--London _Times_, Nov.
3, 1871, and March 26, 1873.
_Monthly Notices of the R.A.S._, 20-100:
Standacher, February, 1762; Lichtenberg, Nov. 19, 1762; Hoffman, May,
1764; Dangos, Jan. 18, 1798; Stark, Feb. 12, 1820. An observation by
Schmidt, Oct. 11, 1847, is said to be doubtful: but, upon page 192, it
is said that this doubt had arisen because of a mistaken translation,
and two other observations by Schmidt are given: Oct. 14, 1849, and Feb.
18, 1850--also an observation by Lofft, Jan. 6, 1818. Observation by
Steinheibel, at Vienna, April 27, 1820 (_Monthly Notices_, 1862).
Haase had collected reports of twenty observations like Lescarbault's.
The list was published in 1872, by Wolf. Also there are other instances
like Gruthinsen's:
_Amer. Jour. Sci._, 2-28-446:
Report by Pastorff that he had seen twice in 1836, and once in 1837, two
round spots of unequal size moving across the sun, changing position
relatively to each other, and taking a different course, if not orbit,
each time: that, in 1834, he had seen similar bodies pass six times
across the disk of the sun, looking very mu
|