SOLAR AND STELLAR PROPER MOTIONS. 
157 
as would be produced by the motion of the solar system in 
space but that the numerical evidence is slight.’ 
In 1869 and ’70, Mr. R. A. Proctor 23 published several 
papers on the nature, direction and amount of solar and 
stellar motions. With his well known graphical skill, he 
constructed charts on which the direction and amount of the 
proper motions of the principal stars were represented, and 
from which he was able to show that, in certain limited areas 
of the heavens, the motion or drift of the stars had an ap¬ 
parent common direction. The motion of the stars in 
Taurus is towards the south-west; in Gemini and Cancer 
toward the south-east, and in Leo the drift is toward Cancer. 
The stars a, p and y Arietis appear to form a single system; 
while five of the seven bright stars in Ursa Major are all 
drifting in the same direction, and at almost the same rate, 
towards the apex of solar motion, or away from the point 
towards which all stellar motions, due to the Sun’s transla¬ 
tion in space, should be directed. 
In 1877, Dr. De Ball 24 discussed the direction of the solar 
motion from the data derived from the proper motions of 67 
southern stars and found the coordinates of the solar apex 
to be, in right ascension, 269°.0 and in declination, -f- 31°.9. 
In 1882, Dr. F. Rancken, 25 proceeding on the hypothesis 
that the proper motions of the stars increased with the stellar 
parallax, discussed the data derived from 106 stars, lying 
within 30° of the plane of the milky way, and found the 
position of the solar apex to be in right ascension, 285° S '.3 
and in declination, + 31° 52'.1. He also found the annual 
linear motion of the solar system to be 9.79 radii of the 
earth’s orbit. 
In 1884, Dr. Johann Bischof 26 investigated the direction 
23 Proctor, R. A. Proc. Roy. Society of London, xviii ; 169. Month. Not. 
Roy. Ast. Society, xxx ; 9. Pop. Science Review, London, viii, 1869 ; 
358. 
24 De Ball, L. Inaugural Dissertation, Bonn, 1877. 
25 Rancken, Freyvid. Astronomische Nachrichten, 2482; 149. 
36 Bischof, Johann. Inaugural Dissertation, Bonn, 1884. 
