was fully
confirmed by the experiments, with variously assorted lists of stars, of
Lewis Boss of Albany,[84] and Oscar Stumpe of Bonn.[85] Fresh
precautions of refinement were introduced into the treatment of the
subject by Ristenpart of Karlsruhe,[86] by Kapteyn of Groningen,[87] by
Newcomb[88] and Porter[89] in America, who ably availed themselves of
the copious materials accumulated before the close of the century. Their
results, although not more closely accordant than those of their
predecessors, combined to show that the journey of our system is
directed towards a point within a circle about ten degrees in radius,
having the brilliant Vega for its centre. To determine its rate was a
still more arduous problem. It involved the assumption, very much at
discretion, of an average parallax for the stars investigated; and Otto
Struve's estimate of 154 million miles as the span yearly traversed was
hence wholly unreliable. Fortunately, however, as will be seen further
on, a method of determining the sun's velocity independently of any
knowledge of star-distances, has now become available.

As might have been expected, speculation has not been idle regarding the
purpose and goal of the strange voyage of discovery through space upon
which our system is embarked; but altogether fruitlessly. The variety of
the conjectures hazarded in the matter is in itself a measure of their
futility. Long ago, before the construction of the heavens had as yet
been made the subject of methodical inquiry, Kant was disposed to regard
Sirius as the "central sun" of the Milky Way; while Lambert surmised
that the vast Orion nebula might serve as the regulating power of a
subordinate group including our sun. Herschel threw out the hint that
the great cluster in Hercules might prove to be the supreme seat of
attractive force;[90] Argelander placed his central body in the
constellation Perseus;[91] Fomalhaut, the brilliant of the Southern
Fish, was set in the post of honour by Boguslawski of Breslau. Maedler
(who succeeded Struve at Dorpat in 1839) concluded from a more formal
inquiry that the ruling power in the sidereal system resided, not in any
single prepondering mass, but in the centre of gravity of the
self-controlled revolving multitude.[92] In the former case (as we know
from the example of the planetary scheme), the stellar motions would be
most rapid near the centre; in the latter, they would become accelerated
with remoteness from it.[