The largest telescopes have hitherto completely failed to resolve this wonderful object into stars. Dr. Huggins, however, finds that the spectrum is _not_ gaseous, so that if the nebula really consists of stellar points, they must be of very small dimensions. The question may be asked, What is the probable size and distance of this wonderful nebula? and could it be an external universe? The temporary star which appeared near the nucleus of the nebula in August, 1885, was of the seventh magnitude. I find that our sun, if placed at the distance indicated by a parallax of 1/200th of a second, would be reduced to a star of about the eleventh magnitude, or four magnitudes fainter than the temporary star appeared to us. That is to say, the star would have been—with the assumed distance—about forty times brighter than the sun. With any greater distance, the star would have been proportionately brighter, compared with the sun. This seems improbable, and tends to the conclusion that the nebula is _not_ an external galaxy, but a member of our own sidereal system, a system which probably includes all the stars and nebulæ visible in our largest telescopes. Dr. Common, indeed, suggests that it may be comparatively near our system. He says: “It is difficult to imagine that such an enormous object, as the Andromeda nebula must be, is not very near to us; perhaps it may be found to be the nearest celestial object of all beyond the Solar System. It is one that offers the best chance of the detection of parallax, as it seems to be projected on a crowd of stars, and there are well-defined points that might be taken as fiducial points for measurement,” and he adds: “Apart from the great promise this nebula seems to give of determining parallax, there is a fair presumption that in the course of time the rotation of the outer portion may perhaps be detected by observation of the positions of the two outer detached portions in relation to the neighboring stars.”