xt
night the faint light was better seen. On the 15th, Tuttle, who was
observing with Bond, suggested the idea that the light within the inner
bright ring was due to a dusky ring inside the system of bright rings.
On November 25, Mr. Dawes in England perceived this dusky ring, and
announced the discovery before the news had reached England that Bond
had already seen the dark ring. The credit of the discovery is usually
shared between Bond and Dawes, though the usual rule in such matters
would assign the discovery to Bond alone. It was found that the dark
ring had already been seen at Rome so far back as 1828, and again by
Galle at Berlin in May 1838. The Roman observations were not
satisfactory. Those by Galle, however, were sufficient to have
established the fact of the ring's existence; indeed, in 1839 Galle
measured the dark ring. But very little attention was attracted to this
interesting discovery, insomuch that when Bond and Dawes announced their
observation of the dark ring in 1850, the news was received by
astronomers with all the interest attaching to the detection of before
unnoted phenomena.

It may be well to notice under what conditions the dark ring was
detected in 1850. In September 1848 the ring had been turned edgewise
towards the sun, and as rather more than seven years are occupied in
the apparent gradual opening out of the ring from that edge view to its
most open appearance (when the outline of the ring-system is an eclipse
whose lesser axis is nearly equal to half the greater), it will be seen
that in November 1850 the rings were but slightly opened. Thus the
recognition of the dark ring within the bright system was made under
unfavourable conditions. For four preceding years--that is, from the
year 1846--the rings had been as little or less opened; and again for
several years preceding 1846, though the rings had been more open, the
planet had been unfavourably placed for observation in northern
latitudes, crossing the meridian at low altitudes. Still, in 1838 and
1839, when the rings were most open, although the planet was never seen
under favourable conditions, the opening of the rings, then nearly at
its greatest, made the recognition of the dark ring possible; and we
have seen that Galle then made the discovery. When Bond rediscovered the
dark ring, everything promised that before long the appendage would be
visible with telescopes far inferior in power to the great Harvard
refractor. Year aft