64 



PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. 



[anno 1796. 



sary to remove objections to the rotatory motion of the stars, inferred from their 

 very slowly changeable lustre, till they come properly supported by well ascertained 

 facts. Many causes in the physical construction of the stars may occasion an acci- 

 dental and gradual increase or decay of brightness, not subject to any regularity in 

 its duration. But when settled periods can be ascertained, though they should be 

 of the most extended duration, it will not be difficult to find other causes to ex- 

 plain them, without giving up the rotatory motion. When the biography of the 

 stars, if I may be allowed the expression, is arrived to such perfection as to present 

 us with a complete relation of all the incidents that have happened to the most 

 eminent of them, we may then possibly not only be still more assured of their ro- 

 tatory motion, but also perceive that they have other movements, such as nutations 

 or changes in the inclination of their axes; which, added to bodies much flattened 

 by quick rotatory motions, or surrounded by rings like Saturn, will easily account 

 for many new phenomena that may then offer themselves to our extended views. 

 After this follows the 2d catalogue of the comparative brightness of the stars; 

 not necessary to be here re-printed. 



XX. Abstract of a Register of the Barometer, Thermometer, and Rain, at 

 Lyndon, in Rutland, 1795. By Thos. Barker, Esq. p. 483. 



