222 SCIENTIFIC NEWS. 



Ceres about 163 real diameters are about 163 and 95 or 71 Englifh nftfctf.' 



m/iSS^ oi There ■ no P robabilit y that ei t"er of thefe ftars can have ft 

 71. latellite. The colour of Ceres is more ruddy than that of 



Pallas. They have generally more or lefs of a hafcinefs, ol- 

 eoma, but fometimes, when the air is clear, this nebulofity 

 fcarcely exceeds the fcattered light furrounding a very fmall 

 ftar. From a view of all thefe circumftances, Dr. Herfchel 

 proceeds to confider the nature of the new itars. He think* 

 that they differ from the general character of planets, in their 

 diminutive dimenfions, in the great inclination of their orbits, 

 in the coma furrounding them, and in the mutual proximity of 

 their orbits ; that they differ from comets in the want of ec- 

 Attempt to con- centricity, and of a confiderable nebulofity. Dr. Herfchel 

 clafs of celeftial therefore, willies to call them afteroids, a term which he de*- 

 bodies. fines as a celeftial body, which moves round the fun in an 



orbit either little or confiderably eccentric, of which the plane 

 may be inclined to the ecliptic in any angle whatever, the 

 motion being either direct or retrograde, and the body being 

 furrounded or not by a confiderable atmofphere or a very fmall 

 coma. This definition is intended to include fuch other bodies 

 of the fame kind as, Dr. Herfchel fuppofes, will, in all pro*- 

 bability, be hereafter difcovered. Some additional obferva- 

 tions (how, that the apparent comas furrounding Ceres and 

 Pallas, fcarcely exceed thofe which are caufed by aberration 

 round the images of minute fixed liars. 



JT. of the Royal Injlitution. 



ExtraS, of a Letter from the Rev. James JVilfon, D. D. Minijier 

 of Falkirk. 

 Falkirk, Stirling/hire, June 18th, 1802, 

 Durability of A few weeks ago the fexton of this parifh, upon opening 

 *h k kun -! d m a R rave m tne cnurcn yard, found a ribband wrapped about 

 the bone of an arm, which upon being wafhed was found to 

 be entire, and to have fuffered no injury, though it had lairt 

 for more than eight years in the earth; and had been in con<* 

 tact with a body which had paffed through a ftate of corrup- 

 tion, and was reduced to its kindred dull. By what means 

 did the filk refiit the putrefactive procefs ? it is not a compact 

 fubftance like hair, horn, or bone, which are frequently found 

 in graves after every other fubftance is completely changed. 

 As filk is deprived of the gummy matter by the act of clean- 

 ing and fcouring, and as this feems to be the chief animal fub* 



ftance 



