Genre:

News-Commentary

Subjects:

Astronomy, Prognostication, Religion, Controversy

    Responds to news of John R Hind's paper at the Royal Society (a version of which was published as Hind 1871) on the transits of Venus in 2004 and 2012. Notes that Punch has since been inquiring into the state of John Cumming's health and found that the divine has been 'totally prostrate' and unable to continue with his work owing to Hind's 'audacious anticipation of events'. Notes that the latest reports claim that Cumming's health is improving and that he is preparing to attack Hind and 'all other such wicked astronomers'.