motion of recession. In the paper called "Are there any Fixed Stars?" in the Popular Science Review for October, 1868, the nature of the means by which this discovery was effected was fully described and explained. It may be permitted to me to mention, also, that while Dr. Huggins's researches were still unannounced (or rather incomplete) I was so far fortunate as to indicate the possibility of employing the very method of research which Dr. Huggins was then engaged (unknown to me) in applying to Sirius. I propose here briefly to describe and explain the method, referring the reader, who desires fuller information on these preliminary points, to the paper of October, 1868, mentioned above. I am the more desirous of doing this, because I find the principle of the method not readily grasped, and that I conceive the explanation I am about to offer may remove certain difficulties not uncommonly experienced.
Conceive that a person, standing on the edge of a steadily-flowing stream, throws corks into it at regular intervals—say one cork per second. These would float down the stream, remaining always separated by a constant distance. Thus, if the stream were flowing three feet per second, the corks would be a yard apart (supposing, for convenience of illustration, that each cork was thrown with exactly the same force and in exactly the same direction). Now, if a person a mile or so down the stream saw these corks thus floating past, he could infer that they had been thrown in at regular intervals; and, moreover, if he knew the rate of the stream, and that the corks were thrown in by a person standing at the river's edge, he would know that the interval between the throwing of successive corks was one second. But, vice versa, if he knew the rate of the stream, and that the corks were thrown in at intervals of one second, he could infer that the person throwing them was standing still. For let us consider what would happen, if the cork-thrower sauntered up-stream or down-stream while throwing corks at intervals of one second. Suppose he moved up-stream at the rate of a foot per second; then, when he has thrown one cork, he moves a foot up-stream before he throws the next; and the first cork has floated three feet down-stream; hence the second cork falls four feet behind the first. Thus the common distance between the corks is now four feet instead of three feet. Next, suppose he saunters down-stream at the rate of a foot per second; then, when he has thrown one cork, he moves a foot down-stream before he throws the next; and the first cork has floated three feet down-stream; hence the second cork falls only two feet behind the first. Thus the common distance between the corks is now two feet instead of three feet. It is clear, then, that the person standing a mile or so down-stream, if he knows that the stream is flowing three feet per second, and that his friend up-stream is throwing one cork in per second, can be quite sure that his friend is standing still if the corks come past with a common interval of three feet between them. Moreover, he
