PORTION OF THE COSMOS. NEBULAE. 223 



"Nebulose del Orione e del Presepe" are spoken of by 

 himself as nothing but " accumulations (coacervazioni) of a 

 countless number of minute stars" ( 368 ). He forms one 

 after another, under the delusive names of INebulosse Capitis, 

 Ciuguli, et Ensis Orionis, star clusters, in which he rejoices 

 at having discovered 400 previously unenumerated stars 

 in a space of 1 or 2 degrees ; nor does he ever speak of any 

 unresolved nebula : how can it have happened that the great 

 nebula in Orion's sword should have escaped his notice, or 

 failed to rivet his attention ? But although it seems pro- 

 bable that Galileo never observed either the large amorphous 

 nebula in Orion, or the round disk of a so-called unresolvable 

 nebula, yet his general views ( 369 ) respecting the internal 

 nature of nebulae were very similar to those to which the 

 greater number of astronomers are now inclined. Like Galileo, 

 Hevelius of Dantzic (a distinguished observer, but who was 

 unfavourable ( 37 ) to the use of telescopes in the formation of 

 star-catalogues), no where mentions in his writings the great 

 nebula in Orion. His tables, indeed, scarcely contain as 

 many as 16 nebulae having their positions determined. 



At last, in 1656, Huygens ( 371 ) discovered the nebula 

 in Orion's sword, to which, from its extent, its form, and 

 from the number and celebrity of its later investigators, so 

 much importance has attached; and in 1676 Picard was in- 

 duced to devote to it his diligent attention. Edmund 

 Halley during his visit to St. Helena (1677) first deter- 

 mined the positions of some, though exceedingly few, of tne 

 nebulse of the southern hemisphere, in parts of the heavens not 

 visible in Europe. The strong predilection which the great 

 Cassini (Jean Dominique), entertained for all parts of con- 

 templative astronomy, led him, towards the end of the 17th 



