ASTRONOMICAL MEASUREMENTS. 185 
stars; but though a globe of 8,000 miles in diameter subtends no 
appreciable angle at the nearest star, yet a distance of 183,000,000 
miles, which is about the diameter of the earth’s orbit, causes a 
measurable change in the apparent direction of some of the stars, 
and this is called their annual parallax. The nearest star a 
Centauri is found by this means to be 210,000 times the earth’s 
orbit in distance. Should the path of the sun ever be determined, 
the secular parallax of a star would be the angle subtended by the 
diameter of the sun’s orbit at the star, and by its means the dis- 
tance of all stars in our own sidereal system might be determined. 
The rest of the lecture was occupied with explanations. of the 
circumstances under which transits of Venus occur, the causes of 
the unequal intervals of time which elapse between successive 
transits, the phenomena which attend a transit, the best places for 
observing the transit of 1874, an explanation of the methods to be 
employed; namely, 
1. Halley’s method, or the method of durations. 
2. Delisle’s method, or the method of absolute time. 
3. The Photographic method. 
4. The Direct method. 
A comparison of the advantages of these methods respectively, and 
a description of the various expeditions fitted out for the purpose 
of observing the transit by England, America, Germany, Russia, 
France, Italy, and Holland respectively. 
THE NIBELUNGEN LIED. 
ABSTRACT OF MR. ARTHUR SHELLY’S PAPER. 
(Read November 5th, 1874.) 
Tue most remarkable feature in the history of German literature 
is the occurrence of two periods of culmination or flowering. Of 
the first blooming period, the Nibelungen lied is the fairest flower. 
It has come down to the present time in ten perfect manuscripts 
and eighteen fragments. The earliest of these is of the thirteenth, 
the latest of the sixteenth century. These manuscripts are divided 
into two groups, the first distinguished by a finer style (lesart), the 
second, or vulgata, by arougher style. They are all probably copies 
of two entirely independent manuscripts dating 1190-1200, which 
again were rewritten (bearbeitet) from an original dating 1150-70. 
