.* d 
Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society. 39 
Herschel, and are also described and figured by the younger. They are 
distant about two thirds of a degree from each other. Messrs. Smith 
and Mason, however, distinctly saw the nebulous matter extending from 
one to the other, making the whole one conspicuous nebula of more than 
adegree in length, being among the most remarkable in the heavens, 
and inferior only to the great nebule of Orion and Andromeda. 
Mr. Mason remarks, that it is difficult to conceive how the companion 
of the nebula trifida and the junction of the two last mentioned, should 
have been overlooked by such observers as the Herschels, with instru-— 
ments so far superior to his in optical capacity. The supposition that the 
nebulous space, noticed by Messrs. Smith and Mason, was not brought 
under the immediate inspection of the Herschels, seemed inadmissible. 
That the greater clearness of the atmosphere of New Haven should more 
than compensate for the inferior light of the telescope employed was 
hardly probable ; the only remaining supposition was, that the nebulous 
matter, in the space examined by all these observers, has recently under- 
gone a change in shape and_brilliancy. 
In making the chart of the stars to which the nebulous space is refer- 
ted, Mr. Mason used the ten feet Dollond refractor, of five inches aper- 
ture, belonging to the philosophical department of Yale College, with a 
Dollond’s illuminated line micrometer. With this he has determined the 
Telative position of the stars down to the sixteenth magnitude, by repeated 
observations, and has furnished a catalogue of the correct places of fifteen 
stars in the first chart, thirty in the second, and a hundred and eighty 
two in the third, 
: May 15.—Mr. Du Ponceau made a verbal communication on the sub- 
Ject of the silk culture in India. 
‘ appears from the sixth volume of the Transactions of the Agricultu- © 
ral and Horticaltural Society of India, Calcutta, 1839, which is in the 
library of the Society, that the English are extending the culture of silk 
to the Deccan and the western coast of India, and have an establishment 
for that Purpose under the direction of Signor Mutti, an Italian gentle- 
man, who resides at Bombay, and is styled “ Superintendent of the Silk 
Culture in the Deccan.” Two letters addressed by him to John Bell, 
“q. Secretary of the Agricultural Society of India, Mr. Du Ponceau 
Considered to be worthy of the attention of those who feel an interest in 
Promotion of the silk culture in this country. A treatise by that 
gentleman on the various branches of the silk culture, is subjoined to, 
and published with, his letters. The chapter or division concerning the 
°eall regards as replete with valuable practical instruction. 
ast subject, (the art of reeling,) the correspondent at Paris of 
had al I ntelligencer asserts, that an excellent treatise has been 
“Y published in that capital by Mons. Ferrier, which has been repub- 
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