SOLAR MOTION. 283 



motion, might well be dispensed with; but if we were investigation 



desirous of greater precision, the secondary purpose, °^ ^]^^ proper 

 ^ * ' ,. motion of the 



next to be considered, would rather incline us to an op- su^. 



I posite alteration. 



^ The great disparity of the sidereal motions, which has 



been mentioned as an incongruity in the first part of thk 

 Paper, and has more evidently been shown to exist when 

 we examined the representations of these motions in the 

 3d figure, is the next point we have to consider in the- 

 cifect of the solar motion. Let us see how far we hare 

 been successful in lessening the ratio these velocities bear 

 to each other. The last column of the Xth Table con- 

 tains them as they must have been admitted if the sun had 

 been at rest. The proportion of the quickest motion to 

 the slowest is there as 2504G21 to 103036; and tha 

 velocity of one is therefore above 24 times greater than 

 that of the other. But in consequence of the solar mo- 

 tion we have used, the two extreme velocities are reduced 

 to 2902716 and 395212; which gives a proportion of 

 less than 7i to 1. 



If the quantity of the solar motion were lessened to 1", 

 we might bring the ratio of the extreme velocities so low 

 as 6 to 1 ; but as the middle rank has already given it a 

 , little below the mean rate, I do not think that we ought 

 to lower it still more ; so that when all circumstances 

 are properlj^ considered, there is a great probability that 

 the quantity assumed in the last calculation may not be 

 far from the truth. It appears, therefore, that in the 

 present state of our knowledge of the observed proper 

 * motions of the stars, we have sufficient reason to fix upon 

 the quantity of the solar motion to be such as by an ey© 

 placed at right angles to its direction, and at the distance 

 of Sirius fromus, would be seen to describe annually an 

 arch of l", 116992 of a degree ; and its velocity, till we 

 are acquainted with the real distance of this star, can 

 therefore only be expressed by the proportional number 

 of 1116992. 



Concluding Remarks and Infet^ences, 



We have now only to notice a few remarks that may be 

 Pp 2 raadcj 



