xx GENERAL SUMMARY OE SCIENTIEIC AMD 



ment was so slight, and so difficult of measurement, that Mr. 

 Huggins could not speak with confidence of the velocity of 

 the motion. In 1870 the Royal Society supplied him with a 

 telescope of 18 inches' aperture, and of very short focus, to 

 continue his observations, and the result of his further re- 

 searches were communicated to that body last summer. 

 Observations of Sirius with this more perfect apparatus con- 

 firmed the fact of the motion of Sirius, but reduced nearly to 

 one half the first estimate. Observations were also made on 

 a number of other stars of the first and second magnitudes, 

 which were found to be approaching or receding from us 

 with various degrees of velocity. The following are some of 

 the velocities found by Mr. Huggins: 



Sirius is receding 20 miles per second. 



Betelgeux " 22 " 



Rigel " 15 



Castor " 25 " 



Reffulus " 15 " 



Arcturus is approaching 55 miles per second. 

 a Lyras " 50 " 



aCygni " 39 



Pollux " 49 " 



a Ursse Majoris " 46 to*60 " 



These observations of Mr. Huggins furnish an interesting 

 confirmation of the motion of the solar system in the direc- 

 tion of the constellation Hercules. 



In the department of solar physics there are no brilliant 

 discoveries to report, the advances being rather in the direc- 

 tion of establishing a general system of solar meteorology 

 than in that of new discoveries. The Italian Society of 

 Spectroscopists, of which Secchi and Tacchini are active and 

 prominent members, keeps up as regular a system of obser- 

 vations on the sun as the weather will permit ; and we may 

 very soon hope, through their efforts, to know as much about 

 the laws of storms on the sun as we now do of storms on the 

 earth. 



The most important step in the direction of new discovery 

 in this department is one made by Professor Young. A com- 

 mittee of the American Association for the Advancement of 

 Science has for some time past been endeavoring to secure 

 the building of an observatory at some elevated point on the 



