TKMPOHARY HTARrt. 155 



transition of the cosmical vapor into clusters of stars, of an 

 agglomerative force, of a concentration to a central nucleus, 

 and of liypolheses of a gradual formation of solid bodies out 

 of a vaporous fluid — views w^hicli were generally received in 

 the beginning of the nineteenth century, but which at pres- 

 ent, owinsf to the ever-changing fluctuations in the world of 

 thought, are in many respects exposed to new doubts. 



Among newly-appeared temporary stars, the following 

 (though with variable degrees of certainty) may be reckoned. 

 I have arranged them according to the order in which they 

 respectively appeared. 



(a) 134 B.C in Scorpio. 



{b) 123 A.D in Ophiuchus. 



(c) 173 " in Centaurus 



(^) 369 " ? 



(e) 386 " in Sagittarius. 



(/) 389 " in Aquila. 



{g) 393 " in Scorpio. 



(h) 827 " in Scorpio. 



(i) 945 " between Cepheus and Cassiopeia. 



(/j) 1012 ♦' in Aries. 



(I) 1203 " in Scorpio. 



(7n) 1230 " in Ophiuchus. 



[n) 1264 " between Cepheus and Cassiopeia. 



[o) 1572 " in Cassiopeia. 



p) 1578 " 



(q) 1584 " in Scorpio. 



(r) 1600 " in Cygnus. 



(s) 1604 " in Ophiuchus. 



(t) 1609 " 



(u) 1670 *' in Vulpes. 



(v) 1848 " in Ophiuchus. 



EXPLANATORY REMARKS. 



(a) This star first appeared in July, 134 years before our era. We 

 have taken it from the Chinese Records of Ma-tuan-lin, for the transla- 

 tion of which we are indebted to the learned linguist Edward Biot 

 {Connaissance des Temps pour Van 1846, p. 61). Its place was between 

 j8 and p of Scorpio. Among the extraordinary foreign-looking stars of 

 these records, called also guest-stars {itoiles hotes, " Ke-sing," strangers 

 of a singular aspect), which are distinguished by the observers from 

 comets with tails, fixed new stars and advancing tailless comets are cer- 

 tainly sometimes mixed up. But in the record of their motion (Ke-aing 



tails of comets (the vapory radiation from their nuclei) with tlie galaxy 

 to which I have already itlliiiled. (^Cosmos, vol. i., p. 103.) 



i' 



