Leverrier

Leverrier, URBAIN JEAN JOSEPH, a great French astronomer, was born at St Lô, in Normandy, 11th March 1811. He was admitted into the École Polytechnique in 1831, was subsequently employed for some time under the board for the administration of tobaccos, and as early as 1836 distinguished himself by his papers on the combinations of phosphorus with hydrogen and oxygen. Next year the place of teacher of astronomy at the Polytechnique was offered him, and in this way Leverrier was led to become an astronomer. His Tables de Mercure, and several memoirs on 'the secular inequalities,' opened to him the door of the Academy in 1846. At the instigation of Arago he applied himself to the examination of the disturbances in the motions of the planets, from which the existence of an undiscovered planet could be inferred; and, as the result of his laborious calcula- tions, directed the attention of astronomers to the point in the heavens where, a few days afterwards, the planet Neptune was actually discovered by Galle at Berlin (see also ADAMS, J. C.). For this Leverrier was rewarded with the Grand Cross of the Legion of Honour, a professorship of astronomy in the Faculty of Sciences at Paris, and various lesser honours. When the revolution of 1848 broke out Leverrier sought distinction as a democratic politician; the department of La Manche chose him in May 1849 to be a member of the Legislative Assembly, where he at once became counter-revolutionary; and in 1852 Louis Napoleon made him a senator. In 1854 Leverrier succeeded Arago as director of the Observatory of Paris, an office which, save during an interval of three years (1870-73), he held till his death, 23d September 1877. See Bertrand's Éloge in the Mém. de l'Acad. des Sciences.