Proceedings of the America7i 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 

 a degree in length, being among the most remarkable in the heavens, 

 and inferior only to the great nebulae 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- 

 red, 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 

 relative 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. 



It appears from the sixth volume of the Transactions of the Agricultu- 

 ral and Horticultural 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 Signer 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, 

 Esq. Secretary of the Agricultural Society of India, Mr. Du Ponceau 

 considered to be worthy of the attention of those who feel an interest in 

 the 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 

 art or method of reeling or winding silk from the cocoons, Mr. Du Pon-. 

 ceau regards as replete with valuable practical instruction. 



On this last subject, (the art of reeling,) the correspondent at Paris of 

 the National Intelligencer asserts, that an excellent treatise has been 

 lately published in that capital by Mons. Ferrier, which has been repub- 



