3T8 Scientific Intelligence — Astronomy. 



though at immense distances from us. Round this he supposes 

 there is a zone, proportionably poor in stars, and then a broad rich 

 ring-formed layer, followed by an interval comparatively devoid of 

 stars, and afterwards by another annular and starry space, perhaps 

 with several alternations of the same kind, the two outmost rings 

 composing the two parts of the Milky Way, which are confounded 

 with each other by perspective in the portions most distant from 

 ourselves. Professor Maedler has acknowledged in his work his ob- 

 ligations, which are those of all inquirers in sidereal astronomy, to 

 the researches of the two Herschels, Sir William and Sir John. The 

 views of Sir William Herschel respecting the relation of our solar 

 system to the Milky Way will naturally recur to the recollection of 

 our readers ; and while astronomers are anxiously awaiting the 

 shortly expected appearance of the complete account of Sir John 

 Herschel's observations on the southern nebulae, the following pas- 

 sage of a letter, which was written in 1835 by that illustrious son 

 " of an illustrious sire, from the Cape of Good Hope to Sir William 

 Hamilton, may be read with peculiar interest, from the agreement 

 between the views it expresses, and some of those to which Pro- 

 fessor Maedler had been led. In the letter just referred to (from 

 which an extract was published at the time) Sir John Herschel ex- 

 pressed himself as follows : — " The general aspect of the southern 

 circumpolar region, including in that expression 60*^ or 70*^ of S. 

 P. D., is in a high degree rich and magnificent, owing to the su- 

 perior brilliancy and larger development of the Milky Way ; which, 

 from the constellation of Orion to that of Antinous, is one blaze of 

 light, strangely interrupted, however, with vacant and almost star- 

 less patches, especially in Scorpio, near a Centauri and the Cross ; 

 while to the north it fades away pale and dim, and is in comparison 

 hardly traceable. I think it is impossible to view this splendid 

 zone, with the astonishing rich and evenly distributed fringe of stars 

 of the third and fourth magnitudes, which form a broad skirt to its 

 southern border, like a vast curtain, without an impression, amount- 

 ing to a conviction, that the Milky Way is not a mere stratum, but 

 an annulus ; or at least, that our system is placed within one of the 

 poorer and almost vacant parts of the general mass, and that eccen- 

 trically, so as to be much nearer to the parts about the Cross than 

 to that diametrically opposed to it. — Vide an article on Msedler's 

 Views, by Professor Alfred Gautier of Geneva, in the 9th Number 

 of the Supplement of the Bibliotheque Universelle^ 24th October 

 1846. 



MINERALOGY. 



6. Cryptolite-, By F. Wdhler (Pogg. Ann., No. 3, 1846; Phil. 

 Mag. xxix. ^\st July 1846.) — Cryptolite is a phosphate of the 

 oxide of cerium, found in the sea green or reddish apatite of Arendal 

 in Norway. It becomes apparent when the apatite is placed in 



