Ordei' of the Starrij Firmament. 83 



longing to a system of stars, stars really double, visible to 

 the naked eye ; and which are consequently, the more bril- 

 liant, and the nearest to us. Such as e. g. Nos. 16 and 17 

 and the two v in the Dragon, Nos. 4 and 5 in the Lyre, the 

 two a of the Balance, ^ of the Great Bear, and the well 

 known star d'alcor, &c. We find a remarkable confirma- 

 tion of this opinion in the circumstance already observed by 

 Bessel that some of these pairs have a common and peculiar 

 movement ; such for example, are No. 36 of the Serpent 

 and 30 of the Scorpion, and the two stars above mentioned 

 in the tail of the Great Bear. It is also well worthy of re- 

 mark that it frequently happens that sometimes one of the 

 stars of these couples, sometimes, both are themselves double 

 in the strictest acceptation of the word. 



We meet also much more frequently three stars so near 

 each other as to render it probable that they were not dis- 

 tributed at random. Among the one thousand three hun- 

 dred and eighty-six stars of the first to the fifth magnitude 

 which are in the charts of Harding, the cases in which there 

 would be three within a circle of one degree in diameter are 

 only one fourth of a time, that is, not at all, while it does in 

 reality occur seven times, or twenty-five times oftener than 

 if the distribution were fortuitous. Agreeably to these state- 

 ments, we may therefore hazard the conjecture that the stars 

 situated like the three 8 in the Bull, the three 4- in the Water 

 Bearer are stars physically triple which may be recognized 

 by the naked eye. 



Our review has afforded the means of discovering many 

 nebulas before unknown. 



[The scientific world will doubtless review with interest 

 and gratitude the remarkable performance, the general re- 

 sults of which are given in the preceding report. Every 

 one may appreciate the toil which the execution of this task, 

 in a climate so rigorous as that of Livonia, must have cost 

 its indefatigable author ; and must cherish the desire that 

 Mr. Struve may continue for a long time to pursue his im- 

 portant researches with the fine instrument which he em- 

 ploys with so much advantage.] — A. Gautier, Bib. Univ. 

 Oct. 1827. 



