150 SPECIAL RESULTS IN THE URANOLOGICAL 



worthy of confidence. If the question be asked why, among 

 the new stars which have been seen in Europe, that of Kep- 

 ler in Ophiucus may possibly be indicated in Ma-tuan-lin's 

 notices, but that of Tycho Brahe in Cassiopeia (1572) 

 certainly is not so, I can no more explain the reason of 

 such a circumstance as an isolated fact, than I can explain, 

 for example, why the great luminous phenomenon seen in 

 China in February 1578 is not mentioned by European ob- 

 servers of that period. The difference of longitude (114) 

 could only explain invisibility in a few cases. Those who 

 have occupied themselves with similar inquiries know ths 

 the circumstance of events, either in politics or in nature, 

 either on the earth or in the skies, not being noticed, is not 

 always a proof of their not having occurred ; and if we com- 

 pare together the three different Chinese lists of stars ii 

 Ma-tuan-lin, we shall also find that comets (ex. gr. those 

 1385 and 1495) which are contained in the one list 

 wanting in the others. 



Older astronomers, Tycho Brahe and Kepler, as well as 

 modern ones, Sir John Herschel and Mr. Hind, have called 

 attention to the circumstance, that by far the greater num- 

 ber (I find four-fifths) of all the new stars which have been 

 described either in Europe or in China have appeared in or 

 near the Milky Way. If, as is more than probable, the 

 mild nebulous light of the annular sidereal strata of the 

 galaxy proceeds solely from a simple aggregation of tele- 

 scopic stars, Tycho Brahe's hypothesis of the formation of 

 new fixed stars by a globular condensation of the celestial 

 vapour falls to the ground. What may be effected by forces 

 or powers of attraction in crowded sidereal strata or star- 

 clusters, supposing them to rotate round central nuclei, 



