in number of times round since Lescarbault had seen it,
Vulcan had gone twice as many times round and half once round again. The
circumstance that if Vulcan's period had been thus short, the time of
crossing the sun's face would have been much less than, according to
Lescarbault's account, it actually was, had not occurred to the
Louisville weather-prophet.[56]

Leverrier's faith in Vulcan, however, has remained unshaken. He has used
all the observations of spots which, like Weber's, have been seen only
for a short time. At least he has used all which have not, like
Weber's, been proved to be only transient sun-spots. Selecting those
which fit in well with Lescarbault's observation, he has pointed out how
remarkable it is that they show this accord. The possibility that some
of them might be explicable as Weber's proved to be, and that some even
may have been explicable as completely, but less satisfactorily, in
another way, seems to have been thought scarcely worth considering.
Using the imperfect materials available, but with exquisite skill--as a
Phidias might model an exquisite figure of materials that would
presently crumble into dust--Leverrier came to the conclusion that
Vulcan would cross the sun's disc on or about March 22, 1876. 'He,
therefore,' said Sir G. Airy, addressing the Astronomical Society,
'circulated a despatch among his friends, asking them carefully to
observe the sun on March 22.' Sir G. Airy, humouring his honoured
friend, sent telegrams to India, Australia, and New Zealand, requesting
that observations might be made every two hours or oftener. Leverrier
himself wrote to Santiago de Chili and other places, so that, including
American and European observations, the sun could be watched all through
the twenty-four hours on March 21, 22, and 23. 'Without saying
positively that he believed or disbelieved in the existence of the
planet,' proceeds the report, 'Sir G. Airy thought, since M. Leverrier
was so confident, that the opportunity ought not to be neglected by
anybody who professed to take an interest in the progress of planetary
astronomy.'

It is perhaps unnecessary to add that observations were made as
requested. Many photographs of the sun also were taken during the hours
when Vulcan, if he exists at all, might be expected to cross the sun's
face. But the 'planet of romance,' as Abbe Moigno has called Vulcan,
failed to appear, and the opinion I had expressed last October
('English Mechanic