The
evening of the 31st of December had been cloudy, but as a few stars
shone forth about ten o'clock, hurried preparations were made for
observing. Herschel, standing at the front of the telescope, directed
his sister to make a certain alteration in the lateral motion, which was
done by machinery, on which the point of support of the tube and mirror
rested. At each end of the machine or trough was an iron hook, such as
butchers use for suspending their joints of meat; and having to run in
the dark across ground covered a foot deep with melting snow, Miss
Herschel fell on one of these hooks, which entered her right leg above
the knee. To her brother's injunction, "Make haste!" she could answer
only by a pitiful cry, "I am hooked!" He and the workmen hastened
immediately to her assistance, but they could not disentangle her
without leaving nearly two ounces of her flesh behind. For some weeks
she was an invalid, and at one time it was feared that amputation might
be necessary.
* * * * *
Not satisfied with the magnifying power of any of the instruments he
had hitherto constructed, Herschel resolved, in 1784, to attempt a
forty-foot telescope.
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