216 COSMOS. 



slightly duller by March, 1606. (Connaissance des Temps pour 

 1846, p. 59.) The locality, it of the Scorpion, might easily 

 be confounded with the foot of Ophiuchus ; but the expres- 

 sions south-west and south-east, its re-appearance, and the 

 circumstance that its ultimate total disappearance is not 

 mentioned, leave some doubts as to its identity. 



(rf) This also is a new star of considerable magnitude and 

 seen in the south-west It is mentioned in Ma-tuan-lin. No 

 further particulars are recorded. 



(w) This is the new star discovered by the Carthusian monk 

 Anthelmus on the 20th of June, 1670, in the head of Vulpes, 

 (R. A. 294 27'; Decl. 26 47',) and not far from Cygni. 

 At its first appearance, it was not of the first, but merely 

 of the 3rd magnitude, and on the 10th of August it 

 diminished to the 5th. It disappeared after three months, 

 but showed itself again on the 17th of March, 1671, when it 

 was of the 4th magnitude. Dominique Cassini observed it 

 very closely in April, 1671, and found its brightness very 

 variable. The new star is reported to have regained its 

 original splendour after ten months, but in February, 1672, it 

 was looked for in vain. It did not re-appear until the 29th 

 of March in the same year, and then only as a star of the 6th 

 magnitude ; since that time it has never been observed. 

 (Jacques Cassini, EUmens d'Astr., pp. 69-71.) These 

 phenomena induced Dominique Cassini to search for stars 

 never before seen (by him !). He maintained, that he had 

 discovered fourteen such stars of the 4th, 5th, and 6th 

 magnitudes, (eight in Cassiopeia, two in Eridanus, and four 

 near the North Pole). From the absence of any precise data 

 as to their respective positions, and especially since, like 

 those said to have been, discovered by Maraldi between 1694 

 and 1709, their existence is more than questionable, they 

 cannot be introduced in our present list. (Jacques Cassini, 

 Jttemens d' Astron., pp. 7377 ; Delambre, Hist, de I" Astr. 

 mod., t. ii. p. 780). 



(v) A hundred and seventy-eight years elapsed after the 

 appearance of the new star in Vulpes without a similar 

 phenomenon having occurred, although in this long interva. 

 the heavens were most carefully explored and its stars 

 counted, by the aid of a more diligent use of telescopes 

 and bv comparison with more correct catalogues of the stars* 



