196 COSMOS. 



Way, that it should so rarely exhibit any globular clusters 

 and nebulous spots of a regular or oval form ; M while both are 

 met with in great numbers at a remote distance from it ; as, 

 for instance, in the Magellanic clouds, where isolated stars, 

 globular clusters in all conditions of condensation, and ne- 

 bulous spots of a definite oval or a wholly irregular form, 

 are intermingled. A remarkable exception to the rarity of 

 globular clusters in the Milky Way, occurs in a region be- 

 tween R. A. 16h. 45m. and 18h. 44m. between the Altar, the 

 Southern Crown, the head and body of Sagittarius, and the 

 tail of the Scorpion. 86 We even find between and 6 of the 

 latter one of those annular nebulae, which are of such extremely 

 rare occurrence in the southern hemisphere. 



In the field of view of powerful telescopes (and we must 

 remember that, according to the calculations of Sir William 



at the Cape, p. 391). " This remarkable belt (the Milky Way, 

 when examined through powerful telescopes) is found (won- 

 derful to relate !) to consist entirely of stars scattered by millions, 

 like glittering dust on the black ground of the general heavens." 

 Outlines, pp. 182, 537, and 539. 



86 " Globular clusters, excepting in one region of small ex- 

 tent (between 16h. 45m. and 19h. in R. A.) and nebula of 

 regular elliptic forms, are comparatively rare in the Milky 

 Way, and are found congregated in the greatest abundance 

 in a part of the heavens the most remote possible from that 

 circle." (Outlines, p. 614.) Hugyens himself, as early as 1656, 

 had remarked the absence of nebulosity and of all nebulous 

 spots in the Milky Way. In the same place where he mentions 

 the first discovery and delineation of the great nebulous spots 

 in the belt of Orion, by a twenty-eight-feet refractor (1656), 

 he says (as I have already remarked at p. 713 and note), mam 

 lacteam perspicillis inspectam nullas habere nebulas, and that 

 the Milky Way, like all that has been regarded as nebulous 

 stars, is a great cluster of stars. The passage is to be found 

 in Hugenii Opera varia, 1724, p. 593. 



85 Observations at the Cape, 105, 107, and 328. On the 

 annular nebulce, No. 3686, see p. 114. 



