COMMENTATIOASTRONOMICA. 237 



«I using Ihe transit observations is undoubtedly far preferable to tbat of using tliem indis» 

 « criininately. With respect to tlie observalions Mr. ßessel bad to compule fromi 

 « I Ihink it must be allowed tbey were not sufficiently exact, to give much weight to 

 f bis conclusion. The methods of observing with Ihe transit, and of enlering the ob« 

 « serTalions, were then far inferior to the present. This objectjon, however, does not 

 (I apply to the observalions of the pole star, and thercfore does not affect the maxi« 

 «. mum of aberration deduced from the observed right ascensioa of ihatslar. '? 



§ 13. 



Brinkleius omnem coHaminum suorum historiam Societaii Regiae comtnunicat 21 

 Junii 1&21 ('). 



Exordium explicat quaestionis slatum :. 



« Tbe results of the observalions which I now beg leave to lay before the Royal So- 

 «ciety, were instiluted with a vicw of discovering, if possible, the source of the diffe- 

 « rences that have existed between the results of former observalions made here , and 

 a of olhers made at the Royal Observatory at Greenwich ; and they will ; it is imagi- 

 « ned'j be foiJnd to be useful relative to some olher important points in astronomy. " 



<• My former observalions of certain slars pointed out a devialion of about one second 

 a from the mean place, after having made all the usual correclions. Mr. Fonds ob- 

 ft. sesvalions pointed out no such deviations. The deviations that I had found agreed 

 « with the effects of parallax. The observalions that I have since made, far more nu» 

 « merons than the former, concur in exhibiting the same results: in showing deviations 

 «. in certain stars that can be explained by parallax, Every olhcr suggested Solution of 

 «the difRculty appears quite inadaequale therelo. Itis, I think, nearly demonslra» 

 « ted , that no change of figure in the instrument has occasioned it , and that the un» 

 a certaintias of tbe changes of refraclion can have had only a very small share, if any^ 

 ».in producing Ihe effect observed. " 



(I It is not the results of a mere repetition of observalions thU I now ofFer to the 

 « Royal Society , bat Ihe results of numerous sels of such observalions , as seemed best 

 «. adapted to examine Ihe queslion in all its bearings. Some of them seemed parlicularly 

 « adapted to disprove , if wrong , the explanalion by parallax. " 



« AU attempts to arrive at results inconsistent with parallax have failed; so that, as 



« fap 



(*) Phil, Trans. iSai. P. U, p. Sa?. Tom. CXI. Titülus est i An account qf observalions etc. By 

 he Rev. J. Brinkley,- 



Gg 3. 



