THE 517th OEDINAKY MEETING OF MEMBEES 



WAS HELD IN THE 



EOOMS OF THE EOYAL SOCIETY OF AETS 

 ON THE 24th APEIL, 1911. 



The Eev. Canon Girdlestone in the Chair. 



The Secretary read the Minutes of the previous Meeting, and 

 announced the following elections by the Council : — 



Members. — The Ven. Archdeacon W. M. Jefferis, D.D., Diocese of W". 

 Virginia, U.S.A. ; Eobert D. Eichardson, Esq., Winnipeg. 



Associates : — Eev. Samuel B. McCormick, D.D., Chancellor of the 

 University of Pittsburg, U.S.A. ; W. H. Seagram, Esq., London. 



The Chairman, in introducing Sir David Gill, said : — The subject we 

 have brought before us to-day is one of engrossing interest, and has been 

 so from time immemorial. We are utterly lost in contemplation as we 

 look up at night into the starry heavens, but perhaps we shall hear some 

 things this afternoon which will make us feel a little more at home than 

 we have been hitherto in that wonderful phenomenon, the sidereal 

 universe. 



The following paper, compiled by the Secretary from shorthand notes, 

 was read : — 



Tffi: SIDEREAL UNIVERSE. 

 By Sir David Gill, K.C.B., LL.D., D.Sc, F.E.S. 



ME. CHAIEMAIST, Ladies and Gentlemen : Your Chairman 

 has just told you what an immense subject the sidereal 

 universe is. In the hour at my disposal I shall try to tell you 

 a little about it, but naturally you must expect me to pass over 

 some points much more rapidly than one would have to do 

 in discussing a more limited subject. Our sun is a star, and all 

 the so-called fixed stars are suns, sources of light and heat, 

 and probably accompanied by little bodies like our earth as. 

 planets surrounding them. The name " fixed stars " has 

 descended to us, because until the year 1718 the stars were 

 supposed to be absolutely fixed, relatively to each other, in the 

 heavens. But Halley in that year, by comparing the old 

 observations with the modern observations of his time, dis- 

 covered that certain of them had certainly moved relatively to 



