Note 44 — Chapter XII · SATURN.

Galle, at Berlin, had, twelve years previously, made an observation which, if it had been interpreted correctly, would have given him priority. In June 1838 he remarked, on several nights, that the inner boundary of the inner ring was very indistinct and “gradually lost itself towards the body of the planet.” The space between the ring and Saturn was half filled with a dim veil, extending inwards from the ring. These observations failed to attract the notice their importance deserved, and Galle himself did not appreciate their full significance until the announcements of Bond and Dawes in 1850.