A Newly-Discovered Letter of J.F.W. Herschel concerning the “Great Moon Hoax”

Crowe Michael J. , The extraterrestrial life debate, 1750–1900: The idea of a plurality of worlds from Kant to Lowell (Cambridge, 1988), 210.

The Edinburgh journal of science, although once an actual publication, had gone out of print by the time the Sun made reference to it.

Crowe , The extraterrestrial life debate, 213.

As quoted in Crowe , The extraterrestrial life debate, 213.

Ibid., 214.

The argument that Locke's articles did not comprise a hoax but were in fact satire is made in a more substantial way by Crowe in The extraterrestrial life debate, 213–15. The entire series of articles has been republished in one volume; see Locke Adams Richard , The Moon Hoax; or, A discovery that the Moon has a vast population of human beings (New York, 1859).

As quoted in Evans David Deeming Terence J. Evans Betty Hall , and Goldfarb Stephen (eds), Herschel at the Cape: Diaries and correspondence of Sir John Herschel, 1834–1838 (Austin, 1969), 282.

In Locke's satire Herschel was reported to have a certain number of friends with him who shared in the discovery of life on the Moon, adding to its authenticity.

Margaret is referring to her and John's sons.

Margaret is referring to John's father, Sir William Herschel.

Evans , Herschel at the Cape, 236–7.

Athenaeum, no. 478 (24 December 1836), 908.

Athenaeum, no. 440 (2 April 1836), 244.

Crowe Michael J. (ed.), Dyck David R. and Kevin James R. (assoc. eds), A calendar of the correspondence of Sir John Herschel (Cambridge, 1998).

These quotations come most probably from nursery rhymes or verse ballads. As to the first, reference has been found on the web to an “English Moon Ballad” that runs, in part, “Our man in the moon drinks claret, / With powder beef, turnep, and carret. / If he doth so, why should not you / Drink until the sky looks blew?” As to the second quotation, presumably about sherry, no reference has been located.