388 Nebular and Stellar Spectra. 



with, those of Secchi (Int. Obs. vii. 139) ; and the possessors 

 of the large silvered specula which are now coming into use 

 will find it an interesting task to ascertain how far they may 

 be able to confirm them. We have already mentioned the full 

 recognition of the gaseous character of this marvellous phe- 

 nomenon, which cannot be discredited after the accordant 

 results of Huggins and Secchi; but it is gratifying to add 

 that the resolution which has for twenty years been usually 

 ascribed to the reflector of the E. of Rosse, has been disclaimed 

 by its noble maker ; his lordship having authorized Mr. Huggins 

 to state " that the matter of the great nebula in Orion, which 

 the prism shows to be gaseous, has not been resolved by his 

 telescope. In some parts of the nebula he observed a large 

 number of exceedingly minute red stars. These red stars, 

 however, though apparently connected with the irresolvable 

 blue material of the nebula, yet seem to be distinct from it." 

 This alone was wanted, to set that most curious inquiry 

 definitively at rest. One singular fact, however, may be noted 

 here. The spiral arrangement ascribed to part of the nebu- 

 losity by the American observers is also a well-known 

 characteristic of many clusters and groups of stars, and should 

 its existence in the Orion nebula be confirmed, it will form a 

 curious bond of connection between objects of a nature ap- 

 parently most dissimilar. 



An examination of former observations with the great 

 reflector, for which we are indebted to Lord Oxmantown, leads 

 to the important conclusion, that no object to which prismatic 

 investigation has ascribed a gaseous nature has shown a stellar 

 composition in the telescope; the widest discrepancy being 

 that 6 nebulas giving a gaseous spectrum, had been considered 

 " resolved, or resolvable ? " at Parsonstown. The indications 

 of the two very distinct and dissimilar modes of analysis seem 

 therefore to be rapidly and satisfactorily converging. Our readers 

 will be interested in knowing what results the spectroscope of 

 Huggins has given with respect to the objects already 

 enumerated in our list of clusters and nebulae. The following 

 were all found to exhibit a continuous spectrum : by which is 

 meant, in contradistinction to the insulated bright lines given 

 out by incandescent gases, a spectrum similar to that of such 

 stars as are bright enough for examination, and to that of our 

 own sun. 



No. 19 (Int. Obs. vi. 115). 11 M. 4437 Gen. Cat. " The 

 continuous spectra of all the brighter stars were separately 

 visible. When the clockwork of the equatoreal was stopped, 

 an interesting spectacle was presented by the flashing in rapid 

 succession of the linear spectra of the minute stars of the 

 cluster as they passed before the slit. In no part of the 



