The Sun.
London, England, 1847-01-07 00:00:00

4 yrs—Bannockburn, 3 yrs—Blackie, 4 yrs —The Traverser, 4
yrs—St. Leon 3 yrs—Burlesque, 4 yrs—Miikniaid yrs—b
f, by Colwick, cut of Y Medoro, 3 yrs—Cranebrook, 4 yrs—
The Conjuror, 4 yr,—Princess Alice, 4 yrs—Kismet, 4 yrs—
Tie Prior of St. Margarets, 4 yrs—Shelforik, 4 yrs.
HUNTING APPOINTMENTS.
Her Majesty's stag hounds will meet on Thursday at Sat
Hill, and on Saturday at Bedfont Toll-gate, at 11.

TO THE EDITOR. OF THE SUN.
SIR,—In your yesterday's paper, linth)r the head
" Money and Commercial New," it is said, The Share
Market at Live) p )ol is, in future, to be closed on Satur-
day." This is a mistake, as there is no intention of
closing the Stock Exchange on Saturdays, and the com-
mittee will feel obliged by your correcting it in your
next paper.

I am, Sir, your obedient servant.
11. SCRIVENER, Secretary.
Liverpool Share Brokers Association,
Royal Bank-buikiings, Jan. 5.

THE CENTRAL SUN.
At the close of the last meeting (on the 14th of De-
ceml er) of the Royal Irish Academy, after the delivery
of the very interesting antiquarian communication from
Professor Warsare, of Copenhagen, and in connexion
with a new mathematical method of geometrically con-
ceiving and symbollically expres=ing the Newtonian law
of attraction, Sir William Hamilton announced that he
had just received from Professor Mii(ll, r, of Dorpat, the
extraordinary and exciting intelligence of the presumed
discovery of a Central Sun. Professor Miidler's essay
on the subject (Die Central Sonne, Dorpat, 1846) was
also exhibited by Sir William Hamilton on the same
evening to several members of the academy; but as this
work may not, for some time to come, be generally
known, or, indeed, easily procurable in this country, we
believe that our readers will thank us for publishing a
sketch of the results which it contains, and which were
briefly stated on the evening already mentioned. This
course will also serve to correct any misconception on
the subject which the unexpected nature of the commu-
nication, and the consequent absence of many of the
members of the academy, may possibly have occasioned,
or at least allowed to arise.

By an extensive and laborious comparison of the quan-
tities and directions of the proper motions of the stars in
various parts of the heavens, combined with indications
afforded by the parallaxes hitherto determined, and with
the theory of universal gravitation, Professor Madler
has arrived at the conclusion that the Pleiades form the
central group of our whole astral or sidereal system,'in•
eluding the Milky Way and all the brighter stars, but
exclusive of the more distant nebula, and of the stars of
which those nebulae may be composed. And within this
central group itself he has been led to fix on the star
Alcyone (otherwise known by the name of Eta Tawri),
as occupying exactly or nearly the position of the centre
of gravity, and as entitled to be called the central sun.

:Assuming Bowel's parallax of the star 61 Cygni, long
since remarkable for its large proper motion, to be cor-
rectly determined, Midler proceeds to form a first ap-
proximate estimate of the distance of this central body
from the planetary or solar system ; and arrives at the
(provisional) conclusion, that Alcyone is about thirty-
four million times as far removed from us, or from our
own sun, as the latter luminary is from us. It would,
therefore, according to this estimation, be at least a
million times as distant as the new planet, of which the
theoretical or deductive discovery has been so great and
beautiful a triumph of modern astronomy, and so strik-
ing a confirmation of the law of Newton. The same
approximate determination of distance conducts to the
result that the light of the central sun occupies more
than five centuries in travelling thence to us.
The enormous orbit which our own sun, with the
earth and the other planets, is thus inferred to be de-
scribing about that distant centre—not indeed under its
influence alone, but by the combined attractions of all
the stars which are nearer to it than we are, and which
are estimated to amount to more than one hundred and
seventeen millions of masses, each equal to the total
mass of our own solar system, is supposed to require up-
wards of eighteen millions of years fcr its complete ne-
scription, at the rate of about eight geographical miles in
every second of time.
The plane of this vast orbit of the sun is judged to
have an inclination of about eighty-four degrees to the
ecliptic, or to the place of the annual orbit of the earth ;
and the longitude of the ascending node of the former
orbit on the latter is concluded to be nearly two hundred
and thirty-seven degrees.
The general conclusions of Midler respecting the con-
stitution of the whole system, of the fixed stars, exclusive of
the distant nebulae, are the following :—He believes that
the middle is indicated by a very rich group the(Pleiades),
containing many considerable individual bodies, though
at immense distances from us. Round this he supposes
that there is a zone, proportionally poor in stars, and
then a broad, rich, ring-formed layer, followed by an in
terval comparatively devoid of stars, and afterwards by
another annular and starry space, perhaps with several
alterations of the same kind, the two outmost rings com-
posing the two parts of the Milky Way, which are con-
founded with each other by perspective in the portions
most distant from ourselves.

Professor Midler has acknowledged in his work his
obligations, which are those of all inquirers in sidereal
astronomy, to the researches of the two Herschels, Sir
William and Sir John. The views of Sir William Her-
schel, respecting the relation of our solar system to the
Milky Way, will naturally recur to the recollection of
our readers ; and while astronomers are anxiously
awaiting the shortly-expected appearance of the com•
plete account of Sir John Ilk rschel's Observations on
the Southern Nebulae, the following passage of a letter,
which was written in 1835 by that illustrious son of an
illustrious sire, from the Cape of Good Hope to Sir Wil-
liam Hamilton, may be read with peculiar interest, from
the agreement between the views it expresses and some
of those to which Popfessor Miidler has been led.

In the letter just referred to (from which an extract
was published at the time) Sir John Herschel expressed
himself as follows:

" The general aspect of the southern circumpolar re-
gion, including in that expression 60 or 70 deg. of
S. P. D., is in a high degree rich and magnificent,
owing to a superior brilliancy and larger development of
the Milky Way, which, from the constellation of Orion
to that of Antinous, is one blaze of light, strangelyin-
terrupted, however, with vacant and almost starless
patches, especially in Scorpio, near a Centauri and the
cross; while to the north it fades away pale and dim,
and is in comparison hardly traceable. I think it is im-
possible to view this splendid zone, with the astonish-
ingly rich and evenly distributed fringe of stars of the
third and fourth magnitudes, which form a broad skirt
to its southern border, like a vast curtain, without an im-
pression, amounting to a conviction, that the Milky
‘Vay is not a mere stratum, but an annulus; or, at least,
that our system is placed within one of the poorer and
almost vacant parts of its general mass, and that eccen-
trically, so as to be much nearer to the parts about the
cross, than to that diametrically opposed to it."—Dublin
Evening Post.

THE CONDE DE MONTEMOLIN. - The Conde de
Montemolin, accompanied by his Excellency the Marquis
of Villafranca, Duke of Medina Sidonis, General Don
Juan Montenegro, Colonel Merry, and Colonel Garci
Martin, honoureci with his presence the performances at
the Lyceum on Monday night. The Prince was highly
delighted with all that he saw, and at the conclusion was
pleased to signify his wish to see the manager, Mr.
Keeley, to whom he expressed his great gratification
with the performances. A piece of music composed by
Mr. Alexander Lee for the occasion was admirably
played by the orchestra. Tuesday the Conde was
occupied during the whole day in the transaction of
business.

SOUTH SEA COMPANY.—DIVIDEND MEETING.—
The proprietors of South Sea Stock had their half-yearly
meeting on Tuesday; C. Franks, Esq., in the chair. The
minutes of the last court were read, showing that the
half-year's interest on the annuities amounted to
89,8141., and on South Sea Stock to 64.0981.; the general
charges for the half year being 3,201/. ; and the Sub-
Governor then moved that a dividend at the rate of 1
per cent. for the half-year be paid, which was agreed to.
A proprietor asked why the South Sea Stock was rated
at the sum given in the account. The Chairman replied,
because it must be paid at par if the company were dis-
solved—that was, the 1001. would hsve to be made
116/. 13s. 4d. for the Government. After some further
formal business the meeting broke up.
LONGEVITY or Lioxs.—Carter, by training, has
reduced these noble animals almost to a state of domes-
ticity, and would, were it permissible, be followed by one
as he is by his dog. There is no doubt that in such a
state of comparative freedom they would attain a great
age; they generally die of inflammation. The Tower
contains a record of the lives of the animals formerly
confined there. Dido had been thirty years there when
' she died; her predecessor forty, and whelped several
times. Nero (her's) died at the age of ten, Nancy at
twenty. The whelps were not suckled by the dam, but
brought up on a milk diet. A great favourite at the
Tower was Fanny, taken by a negro whilst slaking her
thirst at the river Gambia. When caught she was about
the size of a domestic cat. The negro boy became her
keeper in England, and she shewed every mark of sin-
cere attachment to him; until it was prohibited, thelboy
used to sleep in the same den with her. The Keppel lion
and lioness (brought over by the Commodore) were
named Zara and Cfesar, the first a very gentle, the
second a fierce beast. Old Nero lived for seventy years
in the Tower, but fifty is said to be the common duration
of leonine existence. It is clear, however, that on this
subject naturalists have no certain data. An eagle re-
mained in the Tower ninety years, dying in 1760. The
Benedictine monks of St. Bertin (St. Omer s) had a
chained eagle that they averred to have been three cen-

turies in captivity.
A HINT FOR DRUGGISTS.— PREVENTED.SUIaCnIDwEente
shop
—A few evenings ago a young woman ttl
of Mr. Fingland, chemist,inVg wyheeorrmtrmeeistarnedssawskaeudtefior
to
pennyworth of arsenic, say
though he knew the young
poison rats. Mr. Fingland,
woman, refused to sell arsenic to her, unless she brought
awitness. About two hours afterwards she returned,
having a witness with her, but the chemist, thinking he
observed something unusual in the girl's countenance,
folded a little tartar emetic in three separate papers,
and marked each "Arsenic—poison." Shortly after-
wards Mr. Fingland heard that that the girl had been
ill, upon which he called upon her, when he learned,
in reply to his questions, that she had called at a shop
in Liverpool, accompanied by a witness, and purchased a
pennyworth of arsenic, which she determined to take,
in consequence of having quarrelled with her mistress.
Finding that she had not procured enough to destroy
her, she called at Mr. Fingland's shop, and obtained
what she believed to be another pennyworth. She swal-
lowed the arsenic which she purchased at Liverpool, and
finding that it gave her horrible aguny, she =3:kid that
which she had purchased from Mr. Fingland in water,
and swallowed it also, believing that it would speedily
terminate her sufferings. It did so, but in a very differ
ent method from what she anticipated. The dose l ten
very powerful, brought on violent vomiting, and thus
saved her life. She is now doing welt