23 2 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



beyond question, than appears on the surface. Rightly understood, it 

 exhibits the sidereal system itself as a scheme utterly unlike what has 

 hitherto been imagined. The vastness of extent, the variety of struct- 

 ure, the complexity of detail, and the amazing vitality, on which I 

 have long insisted, are all implied in that single and, as it were, local 

 feature which I had set as a crucial test of my theories. I cannot 

 but feel a strong hope, then, that those researches which my theories 

 suggest, and which I have advocated during the last few years, will 

 now be undertaken by willing observers. The system of star-gauging, 

 which the Herschels did little more than illustrate (as Sir W. Herschel 

 himself admitted), should be applied with telescopes of different power 

 to the whole heavens, 1 not to a few telescopic fields. Processes of 

 charting, and especially of equal surface charting, should be multi- 

 plied. Fresh determinations of proper motions should be systemati- 

 cally undertaken. All the evidence, in fine, which we have, should be 

 carefully examined, and no efforts should be spared by which new evi- 

 dence may be acquired. Only when this has been done will the true 

 nature of the galaxy be adequately recognized, its true vastness 

 gauged, its variety and complexity understood, its vitality rendered 

 manifest. To obtain, indeed, an absolutely just estimate of these mat- 

 ters, may not be in man's power to compass ; but he can hope to ob- 

 tain a true relative interpretation of the mysteries of the stellar sys- 

 tem. If any astronomer be disposed to question the utility or value 

 of such researches, let him remember that Sir W. Herschel, the great- 

 est of all astronomers, set "a knowledge of the constitution of the 

 heavens" as "the ultimate object of his observations." Popular Sci- 

 ence Review. 



-+++- 



HOW WAS HERCULANEUM DESTROYED? 



By M. BEULE, of the French Institute. 



TRANSLATED FROM THE REVUE DES DEUX SONDES. 



HISTORY points out marked differences between Herculaneum 

 and Pompeii. The first, settled by the Greeks, was devoted to 

 intellectual culture and refined leisure ; the latter, of Oscan origin, 

 concerned itself solely about commerce ; one was inhabited by Ro- 

 mans of fortune, and loaded with favors ; the other endured the hos- 

 tility of Rome, and often incurred her chastisement. There is reason 

 to believe that Herculaneum gave a model for many details of civili- 

 zation to Pompeii, and we may safely assert that Pompeii taught Her- 

 culaneum nothing. Besides, the earthquake which was so fatal to 



1 This is a work in which telescopes of every order of power would be useful. The 

 observations, also, would be very easily made and would tell amazingly. 



