36 REPORT — 1844. 



ignorance), immediately extends the circuit of the constellation so as to em- 

 brace the star within its limits ; although in so doing he causes the most 

 inconvenient and absurd distortion of the boundary lines, and, in some cases, 

 actually includes thereby stars that ought not to have been disturbed ; which 

 consequently renders the map, or the globe, a mass of confusion and intricacy, 

 and totally unfit for accurate reference. An inspection of most of the modern 

 celestial maps or globes will fully confirm this remark. 



Before a catalogue of any considerable extent, containing new stars, is 

 finally arranged as to its nomenclature, a specimen map of the constellations, 

 or at least their general outlines or boundaries, ought to be laid down upon 

 some uniform and acknowledged system, for the guidance of the astronomer. 

 The plan which was pursued by Ptolemy, and which with some slight altera- 

 tions has been continued down to the present time, may serve as a basis for 

 modem guidance and improvements. Its antiquity, and the numerous refer- 

 ences which have always been, and still are, constantly, made to it, render it 

 now difficult (even if it were desirable) to make any considerable deviation 

 from a system which is associated with so many scientific, historical, and 

 mythological recollections. But whatever plan be adopted, it ought to be 

 preserved with some degree of uniformity and regularity : so that if an author 

 has inadvertently designated a star by a wrong constellation, the name in the 

 catalogue should be amended, rather than the boundary of the constellation 

 distorted. This however will occasionally admit of some laxity ; for, if such 

 star should happen to be near the confines of a constellation, a slight variation 

 in the curvature of the boundary may be justly allowed in the case of a well- 

 recognised star, more especially as the precise limits are in some measure ar- 

 bitraiy. But where a star in any catalogue is designated by the name or title 

 of a constellation, to which it manifestly does not belong, and has been inad- 

 vertently recorded and arranged as one of the stars in such constellation, the 

 only proper mode of correcting the error is to alter its name and character in 

 the catalogue, and thus restore it to its proper designation and position. 



As an example of the confusion which is created by such misnomers, I need 

 only adduce the case of two stars in Flamsteed's catalogue ; one of these is 

 called 44 Li/ticis, but whose position is in the middle of Ursa Major, and was 

 so located by Ptolemy; and the other is called 19 Ursce Major is, which evi- 

 dently belongs to Lynx. Now the map-maker, in order to comprise these 

 stars within the limits of the constellations in which Flamsteed has thus inad- 

 vertently and erroneously located them, has extended the boundaries of each 

 of these constellations in such a confused and intersecting manner that the 

 limits are scarcely intelligible. The proper mode would have been to alter 

 the nomenclature, at once, in the catalogue ; and thus prevent the perpetuity 

 of the error. Another example (still more remarkable) occurs in the star 

 13 Argus in Flamsteed's catalogue; a star that is in fact situate in the con- 

 stellation Canis 3Ii?ior, which lies to the north of the intermediate constella- 

 tion Monoceros : and the map-maker, in order to include this distant star within 

 the limits o^Argo, has in a similar manner traced a double line directly through 

 the body of Monoceros, which thus appears like two distinct constellations. 

 Many other similar examples of distortion might be adduced, but it is need- 

 less to multiply proofs of such evident absurdities, which need only be seen to 

 be duly estimated and repudiated. 



Cases of another kind occur where the constellation is improperly and. 

 unnecessarily extended, although there may not be any intersection of the 

 boundary lines : such as that which may be seen in Flamsteed's catalogue of 

 stars, in the constellation Crater, where many of the stars there introduced 

 do not fall within the limits of the figure drawn by Bayer ; nor is Flamsteed's 



