638 Notice of the Ajaib-al-Mukhlukat. [No. 152. 



quicker, and the production of fruit in greater abundance and of superior 

 flavour and colour ; gems are generated, grow, and acquire brilliance 

 during the days of the moon's increase. A person who falls sick 

 during the increase, will have greater strength to resist the progress of 

 his disorder than during the wane of the moon. 



When much exposed to its rays he then becomes sleepy and indolent, 

 and subject to colds, vertigos, &c. The flesh of animals falls into 

 rapid decomposition. 



The Milky -way, Surj-al-Asma, 4,L>5h ?r L* w the Saddle of the Heavens. 



The milky way is called by some, the Mother of Stars, from the 

 countless myriads it contains.* 



Here follows a brief description of the computed size and revolutions 



of the planets, sun, and solar eclipses. 



Fixed Stars. 

 The fixed stars, the author states, are innumerable ; 1022 have been 

 described, (the number given by Ptolemy, besides the stars Adeneba, AU 

 gardi, and Almuren, though Hipparchus gives a catalogue of 1081,) 970 

 of this number are grouped into 48 figures or constellations, 20 of which 

 are in the Northern hemisphere; 16 in the Southern; and 12 in the 

 Zodiac. (In the Gatasterismi of Eratosthenes, 250 years B. C. are the 

 names of 44 constellations.) 



The fixed stars move from W. to E., advancing about one degree per 

 century, and performing their revolution like the sun, in 36,000 years. 

 The axis of their orbit is similar to that of the Zodiac. The Zodiac is 

 divided into 1 2 signs, (the names of which, like those of the Hindoos, 

 correspond with those of the Greeks,) viz. 



J*s^| Al Hamal, . . Kpioe. 



j*.aJJ Ath Thour, . . TXvpog 



r ^o^iH At Tawamin, . . AiSv/uioq 

 i^lbjitt As Sartan, .. KapKivog 



&*»$] Al Assad, . . Atwv 



* Democritius was the first to propound what the telescope of Galileo has prov- 

 ed ; viz. that the galaxy was a congeries of minute star9. Up to his time it was thought 

 by some that this singular track on the heavens was a forsaken path of the sun, a fiery 

 exhalation or zone, the earth's shadow, &c. 



