É 
needful to preferve the material Syfem: 21I 
The other author, Mr. Fergu/sn, {peaking of the Milky Way, 
Gys, +“ There is ar remarkable tra& round the heavens, called 
the Milky Way from its peculiar whitenefs, which was former- 
ly thought to be owing to a vaft number of very fmall ftars 
. therein : but the telefcope fhews it to be quite otherwife ; and 
therefore its whitene/i muft be owing to fome other caufe. ‘Chis 
tract appears fingle in fome parts, in others double." -~ 
** There are feveral little whitith {pots in the heavens, which 
appear magnified, and more luminous, when feen through te- 
leícopes ; yet without any flars in them.” Five of which {pots 
«he particularly mentions. 
He next obíerves, that ** cloudy {tars are fo called from their 
mifty appearance. They look like dim /tars to the naked eye : 
but through a telefcope,they appear broad illuminated parts of the 
Jey; in fome'of which is one ftar, in others: more.—But the 
moft remarkable of all the cloudy ftars, is that in the middle of 
Orion’s Sword, where feven ftars (of which, three are very 
€lofe together) feem to fhine through a cloud very lucid near 
the middle, but faint and ill-defined about the edges. It looks 
like a gap in the fiy, through which one may fee, as dt were, 
part of a much brighter region.” 
Thefe quotations, without making any comment biis, 
fhew, that the Milky Way is not owing to the ftars contained 
init; that the telefcope fhews it to be quite otherwife ; and 
that it muft be owing to fome other caufe : that in refpeé to 
the lucid fpots, in fome of them there are no ftars ; in others 
but few ; and that one of them exhibits a remárkable appear- 
ance of an aperture, or gap, that gave a profpect into a brighter 
— that the fpaces they occupy, though {mall in appear2 
Ce 2 ance, 
t Aftronomy. p. 339—490. Edit. 4th. 
