rtunities had not blunted his hopes of achievement, had,
ever since 1845, when he witnessed a transit of Mercury, cherished the
idea that an unknown planet might be caught thus projected on the solar
background. Unable to observe continuously until 1858, he, on March 26,
1859, saw what he had expected--a small perfectly round object slowly
traversing the sun's disc. The fruitless expectation of reobserving the
phenomenon, however, kept him silent, and it was not until December 22,
after the news of Leverrier's prediction had reached him, that he wrote
to acquaint him with his supposed discovery.[824] The Imperial
Astronomer thereupon hurried down to Orgeres, and by personal inspection
of the simple apparatus used, by searching cross-examination and local
inquiry, convinced himself of the genuine character and substantial
accuracy of the reported observation. He named the new planet "Vulcan,"
and computed elements giving it a period of revolution slightly under
twenty days.[825] But it has never since been seen. M. Liais, director
of the Brazilian Coast Survey, thought himself justified in asserting
that it never had been seen. Observing the sun for twelve minutes after
the supposed ingress recorded at Orgeres, he noted those particular
regions of its surface as "tres uniformes d'intensite."[826] He
subsequently, however, admitted Lescarbault's good faith, at first
rashly questioned. The planet-seeking doctor was, in truth, only one
among many victims of similar illusions.

Waning interest in the subject was revived by a fresh announcement of a
transit witnessed, it was asserted, by Weber at Peckeloh, April 4,
1876.[827] The pseudo-planet, indeed, was detected shortly afterwards on
the Greenwich photographs, and was found to have been seen by M. Ventosa
at Madrid in its true character of a sun-spot without penumbra; but
Leverrier had meantime undertaken the investigation of a list of twenty
similar dubious appearances, collected by Haase, and republished by Wolf
in 1872.[828] From these, five were picked out as referring in all
likelihood to the same body, the reality of whose existence was now
confidently asserted, and of which more or less probable transits were
fixed for March 22, 1877, and October 15, 1882.[829] But, widespread
watchfulness notwithstanding, no suspicious object came into view at
either epoch.

The next announcement of the discovery of "Vulcan" was on the occasion
of the total solar eclipse of July 2