i 24 Statement of' a Plan for (Aug. 



conjectures but absolute facts. I might also mention that 

 M. Arago informs me, that he has performed numerous experi- 

 ments with transparent screens, and has uniformly arrived at the 

 same results. I may further state, that I have performed various 

 experiments with transparent screens of different kinds, and 

 have, without a single exception, arrived at the important conclu- 

 sion, — that a portion of caloric from an elevated source, though 

 invisible in the dark, freely permeates a thin transparent screen 

 in the same manner as light instantaneously finas a passage 

 through thick plates of glass. These experiments and deduc- 

 tions will form the subject of a paper which I intend to lay before 

 the Royal Society at one of its earliest meetings, in which I 

 shall endeavour to establish on a solid foundation the striking 

 connection between light and heat discovered by the ingenious 

 French philosopher De la Roche. 



Article IX. 



Statement of a Plan for making a minute Survey of the Heavens ^ 

 and for the Formation and Publication of some 'Neio Celestial 

 Chart Sy under the Superintendence and Direction of the Royal 

 Academy of Sciences at Berlin J^^ 



[The Council of the Astronomical Society are happy in being 

 able to lay before the members, a plan which has been sug- 

 gested for a minute survey of the heavens ; — a grand deside- 

 ratum in modern astronomy ; — and, in fact, one of the principal 

 objects for which this Society was originally estabUshed, and 

 which it has constantly laboured to promote. 



The plan, here alluded to, appears to have originated with 

 M. Bessel, who has himself observed upwards of 32,000 of the 

 smaller stars, situated between 15° north and 15° south decU- 

 nation. With a view to render the survey of this zone of 30° 

 more perfect (so as to comprehend many other stars not yet 

 observed by him or by any preceding astronomer), it is proposed 

 that it should be divided into 24 equal parts ; each part con- 

 taining P in AR. And that every person, who is disposed to 

 take a share in the undertaking, should devote himself to a 

 minute examination of all the stars situated in that portion of the 

 heavens which may be allotted to him : — 1°. by reducing to the 



J rear 1800 all the stars hitherto observed in that district; and 

 aying them down on a chart of given dimensions : — 2°. by in- 

 serting also on the same chart, from estimation by the eye, or 

 from actual observation with an instrument, all the remaining 



• This statement has been printed by the Astronomical Society of London for circula- 

 tion among the members ; and as the pl^n cannot be made too public, we reprint it.— 



