_Astronomical Query._--You style your paper a medium of communication
between literary men, &c. I trust this does not exclude one of my sex from
seeking information through the same channel.
We have had additions to our solar system by the discovery of four planets
within the last few years. Supposing that these planets obey the same laws
as the larger ones, they must be at all times apparently moving within the
zodiac; and considering the improvements in telescopes within the last
seventy years, and the great number of scientific observers at all times
engaged in the pursuit of astronomy both in Europe and North America, I am
at a loss to understand why these planets were not discovered before.
I suppose we may not consider them as new creations attached to our solar
system, because the law of perturbations on which Mr. Herschel {85}
discourses at length, in the eleventh chapter of his _Treatise on
Astronomy_, would seem to demonstrate that they would interfere with the
equilibrium of the solar system.
Would some of your scientific contributors condescend to explain this
matter, so as to remove the ignorance under which I labour in common with,
I believe, many others?