1886.] NEW YOllK ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. 257 



been moving for several years — not less than 1,000,000,000 

 miles — there are countless meteoroids moving in ])arallel lines, 

 and with a velocity so great that the earth's orbital motion of 

 nineteen miles a second is absolutely insignificant as compared 

 with theirs. Their speed must be many hundreds of miles per 

 second. This may be true, but I own I am not ready to accept 

 it yet. The observations indicate directly no extraordinary 

 swiftness. Mr. Proctor, whose mind appears at present to be 

 chiefly occupied by the idea that suns and })lanets are continu- 

 ally bombarding their neighbors (or at least do so at some stage 

 of their existence), ascribes such meteors to the projectile ener- 

 gies of some of the "great" stars. But there is not time to 

 discuss his notion, and it is hardly necessary until it has begun 

 to receive somewhat more extensive acceptance. I am not aware 

 that so far he has any converts to his theory of comets and 

 meteors. 



Stars. 



Want of time will also prevent any adequate treatment of the 

 recent progress of Stellar astronomy. 



Two great works in the determination of star places must, 

 however, be mentioned. One is the nearly completed catalogue 

 of all the northern stars, down to the ninth magnitude, begun 

 almost twenty years ago, under the auspices of the Astronomische 

 Gesellschaft, by the cooperation of some fifteen different obser- 

 vatories. The observations are now nearly finished, and several 

 of the observatories have already I'educed and published their 

 work. A very few years more ought to bring the undertaking 

 to a successful end. 



Another similar work, almost, though not quite, as extensive, 

 is the great catalogue of southern stars, made at the observa- 

 tory of Cordova by our own ])r. Gould and his assistants. 

 He himself, with his own eyes, observed every star of the whole 

 number — nearly 80,000 — his assistants reading the circle and mak- 

 ing the records: and the whole has been reduced, printed, and 

 ])ublished within the space of twelve years — a veritable labor of 

 Hercules, for which, most justly, our National Academy has 

 awarded him the Watson medal. He had already, some years 

 ago, received the gold medal of the English Eoyal Astronomical 

 Society, for the Uranometria Argentina, an enumeration of all 

 the naked-eye stars of the southern hemisphere, with their ap- 

 proximate positions and estimated magnitudes. This, however, 

 was only a sort of preliminary by-play, to pass the time while 

 waiting for the completion of his observatory and meridian circle. 



We must mention also the remarkable star-charts made by Dr. 

 Peters, of Hamilton College, of which he has already published 



