Kirk wood.] 



[May i: 



428 



071 the Inclinations of the Asteroids. 



By Professor Daniel Eirkwood, Bloomington, Ind. 



{Read before the American Philosophical Society, May 17, 18S9.) 



The forty-ninth page of my little volume on the Asteroids contains a 

 brief statement respecting the orbital positions of these bodies, and the 

 supposed connection between great eccentricity and high inclination. If 

 the phenomena referred to have any bearing on the theory of asteroid for- 

 mation — in other words, if facts hitherto regarded as isolated prove mutuallj' 

 dependent, may not their discussion point out new and unexpected rela- 

 tions? A more exact examination, at least, of these planetary statistics 

 will not be without interest. 



The first column of the following table gives the asteroids in groups of 

 ten, in the order of distances ; the second, the limits of the respective 

 groups ; and the third, the average inclination of the several clusters. 



Inclinations of the Minor Planets. 



[ 



