It is of interest to learn that, by the most recent
researches, the number in question must be between 8".75 and
8".80, so that in reality Hell's computations came nearer the
truth than those generally current during the century following
his work.
Thus the matter stood for sixty years after the transit, and for a
generation after Father Hell had gone to his rest. About 1830 it
was found that the original journal of his voyage, containing the
record of his work as first written down at the station, was still
preserved at the Vienna Observatory. Littrow, then an astronomer
at Vienna, made a critical examination of this record in order to
determine whether it had been tampered with. His conclusions were
published in a little book giving a transcript of the journal, a
facsimile of the most important entries, and a very critical
description of the supposed alterations made in them. He reported
in substance that the original record had been so tampered with
that it was impossible to decide whether the observations as
published were genuine or not. The vital figures, those which told
the times when Venus entered upon the sun, had been erased, and
rewritten with blacker ink. This might well have been done after
the party returned to Copenhagen.
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