A. MATHEMATICS AND ASTRONOMY. 7 



tion of the principal star in a direction nearly north and 

 south. Professor Young, of Dartmouth College, was request- 

 ed to examine it with his splendid refractor, and reported 

 that he suspected that it was double, but could not be cer- 

 tain. During the summer of 1874, Mr. Burnham with his six- 

 inch telescope, Mr. Newcomb with his great twenty-six-inch 

 refractor at Washington, and Baron Dembowski, at Florence, 

 with a nine -inch telescope, all nearly simultaneously were 

 able to see that the principal star was double, and to meas- 

 ure the relative positions. We have, therefore, in this case a 

 star which to the naked eye appears of the fourth magnitude, 

 resolved by fine telescopes and sharp eyes into four stars, of 

 the fourth, sixth, seventh, and eighth magnitudes respectively. 

 The last-named and most distinguished observer of double 

 stars says that "this is one of the finest multiple stars known." 

 There are others of the same kind, but none presenting the 

 same striking assemblage of brilliant objects within such nar- 

 row bounds. Burnham on j\ t u &corpii. 



herschel's catalogue of double staes. 



It is well known to astronomers that Sir John Herschel in 

 his later years engaged himself in collecting, arranging, and 

 revising the previous literary and scientific labors of his life. 

 His general catalogue of all nebulae discovered up to 1863 

 was published in the Transactions of the Royal Society of 

 London for the following year. His arrangement of all the 

 double stars observed by his father, Sir William Herschel, 

 was published by the Royal Astronomical Society. The last 

 great work undertaken by him was that of collecting in one 

 catalogue all the trustworthy observations of multiple and 

 double stars which had been recorded up to the date of the 

 undertaking. This catalogue, containing over 10,000 stars, 

 together with a synoptical history of all the known observa- 

 tions of about two fifths of them, was completed at the time 

 of the death of Sir John Herschel. It was bequeathed to the 

 Royal Astronomical Society, at whose expense it has been 

 recently published. This important work will be welcomed 

 heartily by those astronomers and amateurs interested in 

 double-star observations. It unfortunately does not contain 

 any indication of the magnitudes and distances of the double 

 stars of which it treats, but, by giving the positions in right 



