distances and positions of 380 double and triple stars , &c. 89 
f Orionis was observed by Sir William Herschel as a 
double star of the 4th Class, the position being stated at 
83° 25' w/" ( Catalogue of 1782), which agrees perfectly with 
our measure ; but neither in that Catalogue, nor in the sub- 
sequent one of 1785, is there any mention of the separation 
of the large star into two. Yet, had it been then as distinctly 
separated as at present, it is not possible it could have been 
overlooked, when kept long enough in view to take an accu- 
rate measure, in the course of which the attention must have 
been closely directed to either star. Still less could it have 
escaped notice in the reviews of the heavens, in the course of 
which it has often been examined with minute attention with 
reference to this very point, as the Journals written at the 
time testify. On the 29th of September, 1782, during one 
of the reviews on which the Catalogue of 1785 is founded, it 
was examined with the 7 feet reflector, power 460, and is 
called “ white, distinctly round , double/' the double referring 
obviously to the more distant star, and the “ distinctly round” 
to the principal, or central one, according to usual custom. 
A beautiful star of the first class could never have escaped 
registering by neglect, when the object was expressly to form 
a Catalogue of such stars, and we are therefore forced to 
conclude, that in 1782, the small star was so closely covered 
by the large one, as not even to elongate its disc. 
f Herculis and 8 Cygni have afforded instances of sidereal 
occultations, in which one star has completely disappeared 
behind the other, and <r Coronse appears to be on the point of 
performing the same singular evolution. This is the first 
instance, however, of the reverse process, for the observation 
MDCCCXXIV. N 
