SOME NEW DOUBLE STARS AND SOUTHERN BINARIES. 31 
Discussion. 
at Madras, in 1840, when the direction of the line joining them 
would be nearly in a parallel of latitude, so that bisecting the image 
tn tha oe ME 4 4 bP - ty Ay | ook oe = Peon bs Poe 
of either star. The observations at the Cape, in 1876, when the 
angle of position had become about 54° show when compared with 
those at Madras that one of the stars had moved 3-1 seconds of are, 
while the other seemed to be fixed, and these observations prove 
that the change is in the preceding star, and therefore the angle of 
position should have been taken on the preceding side; for the 
purpose of the diagram, however, which was merel 
motion, this is not material. Mr. Russell saidhewould like todirect 
attention to one possibility which the diagram reveals, viz., that 
this may not be a binary star at all, but merely one star passing 
another by reason of its proper motion. It will be seen that, 
recent observers ; and a sm 
possibility of which no one would have more readily admitted than 
Herschel himself, would at once place this star out of the list of 
binaries ; already the orbit computed by Jacob has proved too small 
to include the observations, and the period requires to be increased 
as we have seen to 144 years, and the uncertainty attending the 
early observations lends force to the supposition that we have here 
only the effect of proper motion. 
[Two diagrams.] 
