146 
SECOND REPORT - 1832 . 
for 1822, the numbers depending on the star’s place were 
given for 500 stars. (Numbers are also given in the Berliner 
Jahrbuch , depending on the day, and adapted to a different 
system of reduction.) One of the first important acts of the 
London Astronomical Society, was to publish (under the super¬ 
intendance of Mr. Baily,) a catalogue of 2881 stars, founded on 
the observations of Bradley and Piazzi, accompanied by the 
numbers depending on the place of the star; to be used in a 
method identical (in all essential parts) with Bessel’s. Since that 
time the numbers depending on the day have been published in 
the Supplement to the Nautical Almanac: and with these the 
Astronomical Society’s Catalogue, though somewhat less accu¬ 
rate than those founded on late observations (as Mr. Pond’s), 
is far more convenient for use than any other. 
Within a short time, a volume of Tables has been published 
by Bessel under the title Tabulce Begiomontance , which must 
have a powerful influence on the state of Astronomy. Besides 
all tables wanted for ordinary reductions, this volume contains 
all the numbers depending on the year and day, which are ne¬ 
cessary for reducing observations from 1750 to 1850. The 
advantage of being able to reduce on a uniform system, and by 
easy methods, all the accurate observations that have been 
made, can be easily conceived by those who have had occasion 
to discuss distant observations. 
V. At the beginning of the century, our only accurate know¬ 
ledge of double stars and nebulas was founded on Sir W. Her- 
schel’s observations, made nearly twenty years before. A few* 
measures are to be found in Wollaston’s Fasciculus. In the 
Phil. Trans. 1802, Sir W. Herschel published a catalogue of 
500 new nebulas of various classes, with remarks on the con¬ 
stitution of the heavens; and in the Phil. Trans. 1803, a paper 
“ On the changes in the relative situation of double stars in 25 
years.” This may be considered as the epoch of the creation 
of the science in the form in which it now exists. In the same 
work for 1804, he continued the subject. In 1811, he published 
a paper on nebulas, and on the constitution of the heavens; in 
1814 one on the same subject, in which he noticed the breaking 
up of the Milky Way in different places, apparently from some 
principle of attraction; and in 1817, one on the local arrange¬ 
ment of stars, and on the Milky Way. These memoirs contained 
those remarkable ideas on the distribution of the stars in our 
own cluster between two parallel planes, and on the connexion 
between stars and nebulas, (the former appearing sometimes to 
be accompanied by the latter, sometimes to have absorbed a 
