ations based on this value to be very vague. Another reason for a
doubt about a great value for the real luminosity of this star is found
from its type of spectrum which, according to the last column, is F0, a
type which, as will be seen, is seldom found among giant stars. A better
support for a large distance could on the other hand be found from the
small proper motion of this star. Sirius and Canopus are the only stars
in the sky having a negative value of the apparent visual magnitude.

Space will not permit us to go through this list star for star. We may
be satisfied with some general remarks.

In the fourth column is the galactic square. We call to mind that all
these squares have the same area, and that there is therefore the same
probability _a priori_ of finding a star in one of the squares as in
another. The squares GC and GD lie along the galactic equator (the Milky
Way). We find now from column 4 that of the 20 stars here considered
there are no less than 15 in the galactic equator squares and only 5
outside, instead of 10 in the galactic squares and 10 outside, as would
have been expected. The number of objects is, indeed, too small to allow
us to draw any cosmological conclusions from this distribution, but we
shall find in the following many similar instances regarding objects
that are principally accumulated along the Milky Way and are scanty at
the galactic poles. We shall find that in these cases we may _generally_
conclude from such a partition that we then have to do with objects
_situated far from the sun_, while objects that are uniformly
distributed on the sky lie relatively near us. It is easy to understand
that this conclusion is a consequence of the supposition, confirmed by
all star counts, that the stellar system extends much farther into space
along the Milky Way than in the direction of its poles.

If we could permit ourselves to draw conclusions from the small material
here under consideration, we should hence have reason to believe that
the bright stars lie relatively far from us. In other words we should
conclude that the bright stars seem to be bright to us not because of
their proximity but because of their large intrinsic luminosity. Column
8 really tends in this direction. Certainly the distances are not in
this case colossal, but they are nevertheless sufficient to show, in
some degree, this uneven partition of the bright stars on the sky. The
mean distance of these stars is as la