The Book of the Damned

Prof. Watson and Prof. Swift published their observations. Then the disregard that we cannot think of in terms of ordinary, sane exclusions. The text-book systematists begin by telling us that the trouble with these observations is that they disagree widely: there is considerable respectfulness, especially for Prof. Swift, but we are told that by coincidence these two astronomers, hundreds of miles apart, were illuded: their observations were so different-- Prof. Swift (Nature, Sept. 19, 1878): That his own observation was "in close approximation to that given by Prof. Watson." In the Observatory, 2-161, Swift says that his observations and Watson's were "confirmatory of each other." The faithful try again: That Watson and Swift mistook stars for other bodies. In the Observatory, 2-193, Prof. Watson says that he had previously committed to memory all stars near the sun, down to the seventh magnitude-- And he's damned anyway. How such exclusions work out is shown by Lockyer (Nature, Aug. 20, 1878). He says: "There is little doubt that an Intra-Mercurial planet has been discovered by Prof. Watson." That was before excommunication was pronounced. He says: "If it will fit one of Leverrier's orbits"-- It didn't fit. In Nature, 21-301, Prof. Swift says: "I have never made a more valid observation, nor one more free from doubt." He's damned anyway. We shall have some data that will not live up to most rigorous requirements, but, if anyone would like to read how carefully and minutely these two sets of observations were made, see Prof. Swift's detailed description in the Am. Jour. Sci., 116-313; and the technicalities of Prof. Watson's observations in Monthly Notices, 38-525.