relating to the Constmct'ion of the Heavens. 321 
About the latter end of the same year I remarked that it 
was not equally surrounded, but most nebulous towards the 
south. 
In 1 784 I began to entertain an opinion that the star was 
not connected with the nebulosity of the great nebula of Orion, 
but was one of those which are scattered over that part of the 
heavens. 
In 1801, 1806, and 1810 this opinion was fully confirmed, 
by the gradual change which happened in the great nebula, 
to which the nebulosity surrounding this star belongs. For 
the intensity of the light about the nebulous star had by this 
time been considerably reduced, by the attenuation or dissipa- 
tion of the nebulous matter ; and it seemed now to be pretty 
evident that the star is far behind the nebulous matter, and 
that consequently its light in passing through it is scattered 
and deflected, so as to produce the appearance of a nebulous 
star. A similar phenomenon may be seen whenever a planet 
or a star of the 1st or 2nd magnitude happens to be involved 
in haziness ; for a diffused circular light will then be seen, to 
which, but in a much inferior degree, that which surrounds 
this nebulous star bears a great resemblance. 
When I reviewed this interesting object in December 1810, 
I directed my attention particularly to the two small nebulous 
stars, by the sides of the large one, and found that they were 
perfectly free from every nebulous appearance ; which con- 
firmed not only my former surmise of the great attenuation 
of the nebulosity, but also proved that their former nebulous 
appearance had been entirely the effect of the passage of 
their feeble light through the nebulous matter spread out 
before them. 
MDCCCXI. 
Tt 
