OF THE COSMOS. NUMBER OF THE FIXED STARS. 97 



catalogue which was published was that of Halley's 

 southern stars. It was the fruit of a short visit to Saint 

 Helena in 1677 and 1678, but it contained no determina- 

 tion of any star below the 6th magnitude. ( 185 ) It is true 

 that Flamsteed had previously undertaken his great Star 

 Atlas, but the work of that celebrated man was not published 

 until 1712. It was followed by the observations of Bradley 

 (1750 to 1762), which led to the discovery of aberration and 

 nutation, and received a further lustre from our Bessel, in his 

 Fundamenta Astronomise (1818) ; ( 186 ) and by the star 

 catalogues of Lacaille, Tobias Mayer, Cagnoli, Piazzi, Zach, 

 Pond, Taylor, Groombridge, Argelander, Airy, Brisbane, and 

 Eiiniker. 



We cite here only works which embrace large masses, ( 187 ) 

 and present to us an important part of the contents of 

 space in stars between the 7th and 10th magnitudes. The 

 catalogue which is known under the name of Jerome de 

 Lalande, but which is founded on observations made by his 

 nephew, Le Francois de Lalande, and Burckhardt, between 

 1789 and 1800, has lately, though for the first time, received a 

 great acknowledgment. In the state to which it has been 

 brought by the careful reduction, editorship, and publication, 

 for which astronomy is indebted to Francis Baily and the 

 British Association for the Advancement of Science, it 

 contains 47390 stars, many of which are of the 9th, and 

 several rather below the 9th magnitude.* Harding, the dis- 



[* The star-catalogues of Lalande and Lacaille, the first containing upwards 

 of 47000 stars (as stated in the text), and the second above 10000 stars, 

 were reduced, catalogued, and prepared for publication at the cost of the 

 British Association for the Advancement of Science, the first under the 

 superintendence of Mr. Francis Baily, and the second under that of Professor 



