DISTRIBUTION OF THE STABS. 185 



Sir J. Herschel has computed from his gages, that the 

 number of stars visible enough to be distinctly counted 

 in the twenty feet reflector, in both hemispheres, is about 

 Jive and a half millions. That the actual number is much 

 greater than this, he infers from the fact that there are 

 large tracts of the Milky "Way so crowded as to defy 

 counting the gages, not by reason of the smallness of the 

 stars, but on account of their number. 



Sir J. Herschel, in counting the gages, not only set 

 down the total number of stars, but the number for each 

 magnitude down to the eleventh, and even for the es- 

 timated half-magnitudes. Upon classifying the stars 

 according to their magnitudes, it appears that the increase 

 of density in approaching the Milky "Way is quite im- 

 perceptible among stars of a higher magnitude than the 

 eighth, and except on the very verge of the Milky Way 

 itself, stars of the eighth magnitude can hardly be said to 

 participate in the general law of increase. For the ninth 

 and tenth magnitudes the increase, though unequivocally 

 indicated over a zone extending at least 30 on either side 

 of the Milky "Way, is by no means striking. It is with 

 the eleventh magnitude that it first becomes conspicuous, 

 though still of small amount when compared with that 

 which prevails among the mass of stars inferior to the 

 eleventh, which constitute sixteen seventeenths of the totality 

 of stars within thirty degrees on either side of the Milky 

 Way. 



From these observations Sir J. Herschel draws the two 

 following conclusions; viz. "1st. That the larger stars 



