OcToBER 26, 1899 | 
NATURE 
619 
fined as that of the galaxy itself, which it crossed at an 
angle of about 25°. 
Gould, while in the southern hemisphere, had no diffi- 
culty in observing that along this circle, which we may 
call the Star-way, in opposition to the Milky Way, most 
of the brighter stars in the southern heavens lie. 
When he subsequently came home he made it a point 
of study to see whether he could continue this line of 
bright stars among the northern hemisphere, and he 
found no difficulty. So that we may now say that the 
existence of this supplementary Star-way, indicated by 
the line of extremely bright stars, is beyond all question. 
I quote the following from what Gould has written on 
this subject. 
“Few celestial phenomena are more palpable there 
than the existence of a stream or belt of bright stars, in- 
cluding Canopus, Strius, and Aldebaran, together with 
the most brilliant ones in Carina, Puppis, Columba, 
Canis Major, Orion, &c., and skirting the Milky Way on 
its preceding side. When the opposite half of the 
galaxy came into view, it was almost equally manifest 
that the same is true there also, the bright stars likewise 
fringing it on the preceding side, and forming a stream 
which diverging from the Milky Way at the stars a and 8 
Centauri, comprises the constellation Lupus, and a great 
part of Scorpio, and extends onward through Ophiuchus 
towards Lyra. Thus a great circle or zone of bright 
stars seems to gird the sky intersecting with the Milky 
Way at the Southern Cross, and manifest at all seasons, 
although far more conspicuous upon the Orion side than 
on the other. Upon my return to the North, I sought 
immediately for the northern place of intersection ; and 
although the phenomenon is by far less clearly perceptible 
in this hemisphere, I found no difficulty in recognising 
the node in the constellation Casszopeza, which is diametri- 
cally opposite to Cvzx. Indeed it is easy to fix the right 
ascension of the northern node at about oh. 50m., and 
that of the southern one at 12h. 50m. ; the declination in 
each case about 60°, so that these nodes are very close to 
the points at which the Milky Way approaches most 
nearly to the poles. The inclination of this stream to 
the Milky Way is about 25°, the Pleiades occupying a 
position midway between the nodes.” 
, Gould also had no difficulty in showing that the group of 
the fixed stars to which I have just referred, at all events 
of fixed stars brighter than the fourth magnitude, is more 
symmetrical in relation to this new star line than to the 
Milky Way itself, and that the abundance of bright stars 
in any region of the sky is greater as the distance from 
this new star line becomes less. Practically five hundred 
of the brightest stars can be brought together into a 
cluster, independent of the Milky Way altogether—a 
cluster he points out of somewhat flattened and bifid 
form. 
Not only do we find that the stars are very much larger 
in number near the Milky Way than elsewhere, but that 
the same thing happens with regard to the planetary 
nebule. Nebulz generally, 1 am sorry to say, I cannot 
profess to’ discuss with any advantage, because there are 
very many bodies classed as nebulz in the different cata- 
fogues about which we know absolutely nothing as to 
their physical nature. It will be remembered that many 
years ago the question of the real existence of nebulous 
matter in space was rendered very difficult by the fact that 
the larger telescopes, which were then being made by 
Lord Rosse, brought before us a great number of clusters, 
the stars of which were so close together that they seemed 
to form a nebulous patch, whereas on a finer night or with 
a better instrument we were able to see that we were 
simply dealing with distant clusters. I do not propose, 
therefore, to say anything about nebulz generally, but to 
1 Amer. Jour. Scé., Vili. Pp. 332+ 
NO. 1565, VOL. 60] 
call attention to those points about which we can be most 
certain. 
We do know that, not only do we find stars increasing 
in number as the Milky Way is approached, but the un- 
doubted star clusters also increase towards the Milky 
Way ina marvellous manner. 
Bauschinger! (1889) in a review of Dr. Dreyer’s New 
General Catalogue (7840 objects) discussed the distribu- 
tion of different classes of objects and found that star 
clusters, by which he means of course resolved clusters, 
and planetary nebulee congregate in and near the galaxy. 
Mr. Sydney Waters some four years later, in 1893, 
brought together the nebulae and the star clusters for us, 
and I propose to show the very important maps which he 
drew. He indicates a star cluster by a cross, and nebulz 
by round dots. Practically the obvious star clusters are 
limited to the Milky Way. That isa very admirable way 
of bringing the knowledge with regard to any one of these 
distinct groups of stars before us, and it shows us ina 
most unmistakable manner that the star clusters, like the 
planetary nebulz and stars generally, are very much more 
numerous in the plane of the Milky Way than they are in 
any other part of the heavens. 
It is striking to note the fidelity with which the clusters 
follow, not only the main track of the Milky May, but also 
its convolutions and streams, while the remarkable 
avoidance of the galaxy by the nebule, excluding the 
planetary nebulze, is obvious, indeed, it was remarked 
upon by Sir Wm. Herschel. 
We have seen, then, that we have the greatest number of 
stars congregating in the plane of the Milky Way, the 
greatest number of planetary nebulz and the greatest 
number of star clusters. We have next to consider 
whether any particular kind of a star congregates in the 
Milky Way or avoids it. In that way we shall be able 
to see the importance of this new chemical touch, which 
is now possible to us in our survey of the heavens. 
The first attempt at such an inquiry as this was made 
in 1884 by Dunér,? who had made himself famous by his 
admirable observations on two different classes of stars 
—those which I have referred to as being defined by 
carbon flutings in one case and metallic flutings in the 
other. His work was practically the only research on the 
carbon stars—the stars, that is, with carbon flutings. He 
was, naturally, anxious to see how they were distributed, 
and he gives the number of these stars in varying parts of 
the heavens in relation to the Milky Way. He found that 
the numbers increased towards the Milky Way. The 
table I give will show the general result at which he 
arrived. We had, as we saw in the case of the ordinary 
stars, a very rapid progression in number from the pole 
of the Milky Way to the plane ; we had three stars at 
the pole when we had fifty-three in the plane. 
| 
Dist. from galactic pole. Number. Mean mag. 
0-3 3 6°6 
35-60 8 66 
60-70 8 Taz) 
70-80 13 74 
29 83 
80-90 | 
Duner found, with regard to his carbon stars, that 
there was distinctly an increase from the pole towards 
the plane, but we observe that the rate of increase 
was very much less in this case; so that, starting with 
three at the pole, he only found twenty-nine in the 
plane. Although then it was. true that the number of 
stars did increase towards the Milky Way, they did 
not increase so rapidly as the stars taken as a whole; 
still, from his observations, we are justified in stating that 
1 VSS. Ast. Ges., xxiv. p. 43. 
2 **Btoiles de la trois¢me Classe,” p. 125. 
