THE STABS. 167 



Herschel's great discovery, from the apparent 

 motions of the stars, of the movement of the 

 Solar System was not accepted by the next 

 generation of astronomers. Bessel declared in 

 1818 that there was absolutely no evidence to 

 show that the Sun was moving towards Hercules. 

 Even Sir John Herschel rejected his father's 

 views, although some confirmatory results had 

 been reached by Gauss. At length, in 1837, 

 Argelander, in a memorable paper, based on his 

 observations at Abo, in Finland, attacked the 

 problem, and demonstrated, from a discussion of 

 the motions of 390 stars, quite independently of 

 Herschel's work, that the Solar System was 

 moving towards Hercules. This was confirmed 

 in 1841 by Otto Struve, in 1847 by Thomas 

 Galloway, and in 1859 and 1863 by Airy and 

 Edwin Dunkin (1821-1898), assistant at Green- 

 wich Observatory. 



Meanwhile, in 1886, Arthur Auwers, perma- 

 nent Secretary of the Berlin Academy of Sciences, 

 completed the re-reduction of Bradley's observa- 

 tions at Greenwich, and brought out 300 reliable 

 proper motions, which were utilised by Ludwig 

 Struve, whose investigation removed the solar 

 apex from Hercules to the neighbouring con- 

 stellation Lyra : this slight change was con- 

 firmed by Oscar Strumpe, of Bonn, and Lewis 



