An Extract of a Letter, Written to the Publisher by the Excellent Johannes Hevelius, Concerning, His Further Observations of the New Star Near the Beak of the Swan; To be Compared with What Was Formerly Published of the Same Argument in Numb. 65. and Numb. 66

the young ones make their way out at several small holes; whereas the true Kermes-husk seems to be pierced but in one place. The Second; The discovery of our English Kermes hath very much pleased some of the Curious in these parts; who resolve upon Tryals of it the next season. I think, I advertised you formerly, that that deep purple or violet, with which the insides of the husks are lin'd, is much spent, if the husks be not taken whilest the Bees are in vermiculo; and the blackest husks are richest in colour. Yesterday in very good company we compar'd our English Purple-kermes with the Scarlet-kermes or Grains of the Shops, and found them in every point to agree save in the colour of their Juices; and particularly (finding in some parcels of the Shops many yet sticking to little twigs of the Ilex,) we confidently affirm, that those as well as ours are only contiguous to the Ilex-branches, and are not excrescencies of the Tree, much less fruit or berries; by which abusive names they have been too long known; But that they are the artifice and sole work of the mother-Bee in order to the more convenient hiving and nourishment of her young. An Extract of a Letter, written to the Publisher by the Excellent Johannes Hevelius, concerning his further Observations of the New Star near the Beak of the Swan; to be compared with what was formerly published of the same Argument in Numb. 65, and Numb. 66. This Extract we shall give you in the same Language it was written from Dantzick the 1st of May 1671. st. n. —De reliquo meorum etiam partium esse duxi, Vobis quae tocyus significare me nustus-tertius, die videl. 29. April. Novam illam Stellam sub capite Cygni, ad Viam Latæam, quam Anno proximè præterito à mensæ Junio & Julio, ad usque 14. Octob. conspexeram, denuo observasse, quidem eo ipso loco, quo tunc temperis conficiebat. Interim magnitudine mibi nunc aliquanto major appareat; quippe excedit illam in Rostrum Cygni, nec non eam qua est in ancone inferioris alæ Cygni, feréque illi qua est in Pectore Cygni aquatur, nisi quod lumine paulò obiectori & rubicundiori modo luceat. Quà vero die primum rursus illuxerit, affirmare adeò certo non possum. Nam cum cum ferè in ea fuerim opinione, illam vel nunquam, ut plerumque factum fuit, vel tam cito non redituram, ad locum illum haud sapius oculos direxi; nec fieri id quidem poterat, cum hac hyeme, nocturno tempore, circa & infra Horizontem Caput Cygni perpetuo haeret. Cerius interim sum, ad mensem Decemb. Januar. imo Februarii haud conspicuam fuisse. Etenim post 14. Octobris, quo visideri desit, memini me eam sapius quaestivisse eo in loco, sed nunquam apparuisse. Idcirco, quantum colligere datur, vix ante initium Martij, quin sine dubio, adhuc tardius iterum prodit. Pridie eam à reliquis quibusdam Fixis sum dimensus. Distat à Cauda Cygni, 20 gr. 55'. 20"; ab ancone Alae superioris Cygni, 17 gr. 47'. 50"; à Capite vero Serpentarii, 34 gr. 19'. 40"; sic ut eodem planè loco adhuc persit, ubi antea fuerat. De reliquo, mihi persuadeo, cum semel, & quidem intra adeo breve temporis spatium redierit, illam sapius fore invisibilem rursus q; conspicuam, cum incremento & decremento illus, que in Collo Ceti est, adinflar. Proinde operæ pretium fuerit, cum Philosophiae plurimum intersit scire. An dentur evidentes ejusmodi alterationes in Cælo plures, ut diligentius imposterum ad eam attendamus; possitne certa quaedam Hypothesis de ejus occasu & ortu, decremente item & incremento, à nobis excogitari? Et an singulis annis, ut Stella in Collo Ceti, sub aspectum veniat? An certo anni & omni tempore sub aspectum veniat, pariratione; an vero cum retardatione vel anticipacione aliqua certa? Et denique, an semper æquali magnitudine, simili colore & lumine prodeat, permaneatque? Ego, dante Deo, meam operam bac in parte polliceor; reliqui Uraniae cultores quin idem facturi sint, nullus dubito. Another Accomp of the same Subject. Englished out of the French Journal des Scavans, printed at Paris the 22nd of June 1671. The New Star, which Don Anthelme, a Carthusian of Dyon, hath lately discover'd *, is one of the rarest Appearances observed this good while. As this person contemplated the Heavens at night, June 20th of the last year, desirous to discover that admirable Star, which hath appear'd and disappear'd twice since the beginning of this Century in the Constellation of the