ke of the sun, to determine his
absolute path in space as projected upon the ecliptic. That is to say,
the longitude of the apex could be deduced together with the resolved
part of the solar velocity; the latitude of the apex, as well as the
component of velocity perpendicular to the plane of the ecliptic,
remaining, however, unknown.

The beaten track, meanwhile, has conducted two recent inquirers to
results of some interest. The chief aim of each was the detection of
systematic peculiarities in the motions of stellar assemblages after
the subtraction from them of their common perspective element. By
varying the materials and method of analysis, Prof. Lewis Boss,
Director of the Albany Observatory, hopes that corresponding
variations in the upshot may betray a significant character. Thus, if
stars selected on different principles give notably and consistently
different results, the cause of the difference may with some show of
reason be supposed to reside in specialties of movement appertaining
to the several groups. Prof. Boss broke ground in this direction by
investigating 284 proper motions, few of which had been similarly
employed before (_Astr. Jour._, No. 213). They were all taken from an
equatorial zone 4 deg. 20' in breadth, with a mean declination of +3 deg.,
observed at Albany for the catalogue of the Astronomische
Gesellschaft, and furnished data accordingly for a virtually
independent research of a somewhat distinctive kind. It was carried
out to three separate conclusions. Setting aside five stars with
secular movements ranging above 100", Prof. Boss divided the 279 left
available into two sets--one of 185 stars brighter, the other of 144
stars fainter than the eighth magnitude. The first collection gave for
the goal of solar translation a point about 4 deg. north of [alpha] Lyrae,
in R.A. 280 deg., Decl. +43 deg.; the second, one some thirty-seven minutes of
time to the west of [delta] Cygni, in R.A. 286 deg., Decl. +45 deg.. For a
third and final solution, twenty-six stars moving 40"-100" were
rejected, and the remaining 253 classed in a single series. The upshot
of their discussion was to shift the apex of movement to R.A. 289 deg.,
Decl. +51 deg.. So far as the difference from the previous pair of results
is capable of interpretation, it would seem to imply a predominant set
toward the northeast of the twenty-six swifter motions subsequently
dismissed as prejudicial, but in truth the data employed were