140 COSMOS. ; 



ponderance^ on the side of the more beautiful southern 

 heavens. 



"VVhen in 1843 I requested Captain Sdiwiiick (of the En- 

 gineers) to communicate to me the distribution according to 

 right ascension of the 12,148 stars (from the first to the sev- 

 enth inclusive), which, at Bessel's suggestion, he had noted 

 in his Ma2')pa Ccdestis, he found in four groups — 



These groups correspond v^dth the more exact results of the 

 Ktudes Stellaires, according to which the maxima of stars 

 of the first to the ninth magnitude occur in the right ascen- 

 sion 6h. 40m. and. 18h. 40m., and the minima in the right 

 ascension of Ih. 30m. and 13h. 30m. f 



It is essential that, in reference to the conjectural struc- 

 ture of the universe and to the position or depth of these 

 strata of conglomerate matter, we should distinguish among 

 the countless number of stars with which the heavens are 

 studded, those which are scattered sporadically, and those 

 which occur in separate, indeperident, and crowded groups. 

 The latter are the so-called stellar clusters or sivarins, which 

 frequently contain thousands of telescopic stars in recogniza- 

 ble relations to each other, and which appear to the unaided 

 eye as round nebulse, shining like comets. These are, the 

 uebulous stars of Eratosthenes! and Ptolemy, the nehulosce 

 of the Alphonsine Tables in 1483, and the same of which 

 Galileo said in the Nuncius Sidercics, " Sicut areola? spar- 

 Bim per sethera subfulgcnt." 



These clusters of stars are either scattered separately 

 throughout the heavens, or closely and irregulai ty crowded 

 together, in strata, as it were, in the Milky Way. and in the 

 Magellanic clouds. The greatest accumulation of globulaT 

 clusters, and the most important in reference t( the config 

 uration of the galactic circle, occurs in a region y f the south- 

 ern heavenss^ betM^cen Corona Aiistralis, Sag: ".tarius, the 



*" Op. ciL, § 7'Jo, 796; Struve, Eiudcs d'Asir. Sid!., ?. GO, 73 (aii;l 

 note 7o). 



t Struve, p. 59. Sclnviiick finds in his maps, R. A 0^-90°, 2858 



stars; R. A. 90O-180^, 3011 stars; R. A. 180^-270^, 26 8 stars; R. A 



i!70^-3G0°, 3591 stars; sum total, 12,148 stars to the seve. >.h magnitude 



t On the nebula m the right hand of Perseus (near .he hilt of hid 

 8Word), see Eratosth., CaiasL, c. 22, p. 51, Schauhach 



p John Herschel's Observations at the Cape, $ 105, ] i'JC. 



