The merit of having
paved the way for the discovery of the planet Neptune is due to M. Bouvard,
who, in his persevering and assiduous efforts to deduce the entire orbit of
Uranus from observations made during the forty years that succeeded the
discovery of that planet in 1781, found the results yielded by theory to be
at variance with fact, in a degree that had no parallel in the history of
astronomy. This startling discrepancy, which seemed only to gain additional
weight from every attempt made by M. Bouvard to correct his calculations,
led Leverrier, after a careful modification of the tables of Bouvard, to
establish the proposition that there was "a formal incompatibility between
the observed motions of Uranus and the hypothesis that he was acted on
'only' by the Sun and known planets, according to the law of universal
gravitation." Pursuing this idea, Leverrier arrived at the conclusion that
the disturbing cause must be a 'planet', and finally, after an amount of
labor that seems perfectly overwhelming, he, on the 31st of August, 1846,
laid before the French Institute a paper, in which he indicated the exact
spot in the heavens where this new planetary body would be found, giving the
following data for its various elements: mean distance from the Sun, 36.
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