170 SCIENTIFIC RECORD FOR 1834. 



for this work, and that uo uuforeseen circumstances will prevent its com- 

 plete accomplishment." {Nature.) 



DOUBLE STARS. 



"Jfr. Burnhcmi's doiiMe-star measures. — The recently published vol- 

 ume of the Memoirs of the Boyal Astronomical Society contains a further 

 series of measures of double stars by Mr. S. W. Burnham, made with 

 the 18-iuch refractor of the observatory at Chicago, This series com- 

 prises measures of 151 double stars discovered by this eminent ob- 

 server, which brings up the number of such objects discovered by him 

 during the last ten years to uo fewer than 1,013, amongst which are in- 

 cluded some of the most interesting stars of this class ; also measures of 

 a selected list of double stars, 770 in number, made chiefly in the years 

 1879 and 1880, with an appendix, the results of observations of several 

 objects as late as the middle of the past year. Every one who is in- 

 terested in this branch of astronomical science will read with much re- 

 gret one remark in Mr. Burnham's introduction. He writes : ' The 

 present catalogue will conclude my astronomical work, at least so far 

 as any regular or systematic observations are concerned.' He expresses 

 himself modestly respecting his own labors : ' In a field so infinitely 

 large, one can accomplish but little at the most, and how much, or how 

 little, the astronomers of a few centuries hence can perhaps best decide. 



- - - At this time I may venture to claim that my work in this 

 field has been prosecuted with some enthusiasm, and for its own sake 

 only, and that my interest has not been divided among several spe- 

 cialities.' 



" But a higher estimate of Mr. Buruham's work in this particular line 

 of observational astronomy to which he has devoted himself may be 

 justly taken. To read of the discovery of uj^wards of a thousand 

 double stars within a limited period by one observer, we might almost 

 suppose we were living in the days of Sir William Herschel, when the 

 heavens were comparatively an open field, and had not undergone the 

 wide and close exploration which they had done when Mr. Burnham 

 commenced his work. He has had, it is true, the advantage of instru- 

 ments of the finest class, and, we may believe, an unusually acute 

 vision ; but he must have exercised an extraordinary and most mer- 

 itorious amount of patience, perseverance, and care in the discovery 

 and accurate measurement of such a list of double stars, and it will be 

 gratifying to the astronomical world that such well-directed exertions 

 have met with so exceptional a success. 



" Among the more noteworthy stars included in Mr. Burnham's new 

 catalogue (the fourteenth), which may be considered a continuation of 

 that published in vol. xliv of the same Memoirs., the following may be 

 mentioned : 



" 1. 12G Tauri (,5 1007), ' a most remarkably close and difficult pair, one 



