Order of the Starry Firmament. 79 



the Hounds, constellations most distant from the milky way, 

 there is the smaller proportion of them. 



From this region, the number of double stars increases as 

 we approach the Galaxy, that is to say as the number of stars 

 increase. There are however in the milky way, regions that 

 are not more rich in double stars than the Great Bear, such 

 as Cepheus, and Cassiopoe, and still farther south the region 

 about the constellation Pegasus, and the anterior part of 

 Andromeda. The richest regions are in Lyra, the north of 

 the milky way, the Goose, the Fox and the Arrow. In Per- 

 seus also and to the north of the milky way, there is a great 

 accumulation of double stars, while the Galaxy itself is not 

 as well furnished as the Rams, the Triangle, the Fly, and 

 a part of the Bull situated in the south. Finally, the constel- 

 lation Orion, that region of the sky so surprisingly rich, on 

 the south of the milky way contains a surprising number of 

 double stars, while the parts of the milky way itself which 

 follow it, such as the Unicorn, &c. are very barren of them. 

 At a greater distance from the milky way on the north, in 

 the Twins, and in the Lynx, and the Telescope, generally 

 poor in briUiant stars, we find as many double stars as in 

 those parts of the milky way south of these regions. 



Since, of one hundred and twenty thousand stars that 

 have been examined, more than three thousand have been 

 ascertained to be double, it may be stated that the latter are 

 about one to forty ; but this ratio changes with the splendor 

 of the stars. Flamstead determined more than a century 

 ago, in the portion of the sky that we have reviewed, the 

 place of two thousand three hundred and seventy-four stars; 

 which are mostly of the first to the sixth magnitude. All 

 these were examined by Herscheil who found one hundred 

 and sixty-seven, of the first four classes, double, and to them 

 sixty-three have been since added. Thus of two thousand 

 three hundred and seventy-four, as far as the sixth magni- 

 tude, there are two hundred and thirty double, viz. one to 

 eleven. 



The great catalogueof Piazza contains five thousand sev- 

 en hundred and sixty-two stars. Deducting those of Flam- 

 stead, there remain three thousand three hundred and eighty 

 eight, mostly smaller, among which one hundred and thirty 

 four are double, which is one to twenty-five. As to the stars 

 which are much smaller, whose position has more recently 

 been determined, the proportion is about one to forty-two. 



