Sect. VIIL] Aslronom^, 79 



every astronomer. It is to the stars we arc obJiged 

 to refer all the motions of the sun, the planets, and 

 the comets. In this part of the science under 

 consideration much has been done during the last 

 century. The catalogue of stars formed by Flam- 

 stead, was before mentioned as one of the most 

 complete ever derived from the labours of an indi- 

 vidual. To this succeeded the observations and 

 catalogues of de la Caille, Bradley, and Mayer, 

 which it is scarcely necessary to say were highly 

 valuable. After these, Mr. Bode, of Berlin, pub- 

 lished, in 1782, a very extensive and im})roved 

 catalogue, which is greatly esteemed among astro- 

 nomers. He was followed by the celebrated baron 

 von Zach, of Gotha, whose catalogues and tables, 

 in many respects, excelled all that had preceded 

 them. Beside these, the public has been favoured 

 with interesting accounts of new stars, by Hers- 

 chel, Maskelyne, the elder Lalande, and many 

 others*. The number discovered by the power- 

 ful instruments of Herschel, in particular, is almost 

 incredibly great. But the last, and the most 

 complete series of observations ever made in this 

 department of astronomy, is that lately announced 

 by de Lalande the elder, and his nephew, le 

 Francais Lalande, who, with the assistance of the 

 ingenious and enterprising wife of the latter, have 

 determined the places o{ fifty thousand stars, from 

 the Pole to two or three degrees below the Tropic 

 of Capricorn f. 

 We may also reckon among the great astrono- 



* See Additional Notes — (Q). 



t See Lalande's History of Astronomy for 1800, 



