Or THE COSMOS. MOTION OF THE SOLAE, SYSTEM. 195 



35'-5, and for 1850, E.A. 261 52'-6 and Dec. 37 33'-0. 

 According to Gauss, ( 321 ) the place sought for is situated 

 within a quadrangle whose angular points are in 



E.A. 258 40' and Bed. + 30 40' 

 258 42' 30 57' 

 259 13' 31 9' 

 260 4' 30 32' 



It still remained to examine what result would be ob- 

 tained by employing stars of the Southern Hemisphere, 

 which never rise above the horizon in Europe. Galloway 

 has devoted himself with great diligence to this research. 

 He Has compared very recent determinations (1830) by John- 

 son at St. Helena, and by Henderson at the Cape of Good 

 Hope, with determinations of older date, (1750 and 1757) 

 of Bradley and Lacaille. The result ( 322 ) has been, for 1790, 

 E.A. 260 0', Decl. + 34 23', and therefore for 1800 

 E.A. 260 5', Decl. + 34 22' ; and for 1850, 260 33' 

 and + 34 20'. This agreement with the results obtained 

 from Northern Stars is extremely satisfactory. 



If a then, we may consider the direction of the progressive 

 movement of our solar system to be determined within 

 moderate limits, the questions very naturally arise, Is the 

 world of the fixed stars distributed into groups, each con- 

 sisting only of neighbouring partial systems ? or must we 

 imagine a general relation, i.e. that all self-luminous celes- 

 tial bodies (suns) revolve around a common centre of gra- 

 vity, either occupied ly a mass of matter, or void, i.e. not so 

 occupied ? "We are here entering on the domain of mere 

 conjecture, to which a scientific form may indeed be given, 

 but which, from the insufficiency of the data at our com- 



