HUGGINS, WILLIAM, LL.D, b. London, 1824; an astronomer. In 1855 he built an observatory at his residence, in which he mounted a telescope of 8 in aperture. and made some careful drawings of Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn. His attention was first engaged in observations on double stars, but afterwards he devoted himself to the spec trum analysis and the study of nebulae and comets. With Dr. Miller he compared the spectra of about fifty stars directly in the instrument with the spectra of several terres trial elements. They concluded that the stars are hot bodies, similarly constituted to our sun, and that they contain many of the substances found on the earth. One of the most remarkable of Mr. Huggins's subsequent discoveries was that of the nature of sonic of the nebulae. He found that some of the bodies gave a spectrum of a few bright lines only, which showed that the light had emanated from heated matter in the state of gas; and further that one of the principal constituents of the gaseous nebulae is hydrogen. He concluded, therefore, that the nebulte are not clusters of stars too distant to be separately distinguished. He has since continued his prismatic researches by a re-exami nation of the nebuhe by a more powerful spectroscope, by which his former results have been confirmed. He has also examined the spectra of four comets, and has found
that the greater part of the light of these objects is different from solar light. spectrum of Winnecke's comet he found to be identical with the spectrum of carbon. His observations of the bright comet of the autumn of 1874 confirm his curlier ones. and show that carbon, probably with hydrogen, forms one of the constituents of com etary matter. Mr. Huggins has also shown that the proper motion of the stars in the line of sight can be determined from any small shift of position which the lines of their spectra may have suffered, and that Sirius is moving from the earth with a velocity of 27 m. per second. Of 30 stars examined, subsequently 19 were found to he retelling and 11 approaching. He has made observations of the spectra of the solar prominences, and devised the method by which the forms of these objects may be seen. Ile has also succeeded in detecting the heat received at the earth from some of the fixed stars. On the occasion of the meeting of the British association at Edinburgh, in 1871, he was created honorary LL.D. of that university. Ile was president of the royal astronomical society of Great Britain, 1876-78.