Page 1813 : STARS — STATES GENERAL
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to speak words; it is therefore often caged. They kill an immense number of insects and are beneficial to the gardener. A starling inhabiting the steppes and plains of Western Asia devours so many locusts that it is called the locust bird. The ox-pecker of Africa is also a starling.
Stars, those heavenly bodies which appear as bright points having fixed positions in the sky. The spectroscope in the hands of Fraunhofer, Huggins and others has shown that these so-called fixed stars really are gigantic and very distant suns; for they give continuous spectra crossed by dark lines, indicating, as in the case of our central luminary, a solid or liquid core surrounded by incandescent vapor.
Ptolemy and Hipparchos divided the stars visible to the naked eye into six different groups, according to their brightness. These groups are called magnitudes, and since the invention of the telescope this classification has been so extended that astronomers grade stars into 14 or 15 groups. In the first magnitude they place the 14 brightest stars, including Sirius, Vega, Arcturus etc.; in the second group are 48 stars, including the Pole Star and two Pointers; in the third 152; in the fourth 313; in the fifth 854; and in the sixth 2,010, making a total of 3,391, which are practically all the stars which can be seen without the aid of a glass. The number of stars which can be photographed, or which can be seen with our largest refracting telescopes, runs into the millions. The distances of the fixed stars are known only in a few cases, and even then very roughly. This quantity is determined by measuring the annual parallax of the star, a quantity which, except in a very few cases, is so minute as not to exceed the errors of measurement. The nearest star, so far as known, is α Centauri, whose parallax is only ¾ of a second of arc, and even this, our nearest neighbor, is at the stupendous distance of four “light-years,” i. e., at a distance such that light would require four years to traverse it.
The student should bear in mind that, although these stars are said to be fixed, most of them exhibit, in fact, a small amount of motion, say, a second or so in a year. In addition to this motion across the heavens, which is measured in angle and is called proper motion, nearly all stars exhibit a motion toward us or away from us, which is called motion in the line of sight. The measurement of this latter motion is one of the recent achievements of the spectroscope, based on Döppler’s principle. Consult Miss Clerke’s System of the Stars; Chambers’ The Story of the Stars; Lockyer’s Meteoric Hypothesis; and Sheiner’s Astronomical Spectroscopy. See Nebula, Parallax and Telescope.
Star-Span′gled Banner, The. Words by Francis Scott Key, adapted to the old air Anacreon in Heaven. This air was the constitutional song of The Anacreontic Society of London, always sung by an official of the society at the supper with which it was customary to close the musical season, near the end of the 18th century. The tune was probably composed by Doctor Samuel Arnold (1740–1802). It became known in America in 1798, being sung at an anniversary meeting of the Massachusetts Charitable Fire-Society, to words by Thomas Paine, who later changed his name to Robert Treat Paine. Subsequently there were settings of other words to this tune, popularly known as Adams and Liberty. Further details regarding the tune and Key’s words may be found in a pamphlet by Stephen Salisbury, Esq., of Worcester, Mass., and in The National Music of America and its Sources by Elson, Boston, 1899. See Key, Francis Scott.
Stat′en Island, the chief island in New York Harbor, forming Richmond County, N. Y., and the borough of Richmond in the enlarged city now known as Greater New York. It received its name from early Dutch settlers in honor of the states-general (Dutch Staten). It has an area of 58½ square miles, and is about 13 miles in length and eight in breadth. It is separated from Long Island by the Narrows and from New Jersey by the Kill von Kull and Staten Island Sound, and has steam-ferry communication with New York City and with New Jersey, while the Staten Island Rapid Transit Railroad reaches the towns, villages and watering places of importance on the island. Close to Clifton is Fort Wadsworth, and on the north shore is Sailor’s Snug Harbor, an asylum for aged and infirm mariners. At Stapleton is a United States marine hospital, and between St. George and Tompkinsville is a United States lighthouse-station. On the island are the residences of many of the business men of New York City. Population 85,969.
States Gen′eral, The. In France the convocation of the representative body of the three orders of the French kingdom (representing the nobility, the clergy and the bourgeoisie) for deliberating on matters of public importance. It corresponded somewhat to our Congress. Under Charlemagne the national assembly was made up of nobles and clergy, a practice continued till about 900. Thereafter we have no trace of such an assembly in France till 1302 when Philip the Fair revived the states general, including representatives of the citizens because he hoped to gain their support in his struggle with Pope Boniface VIII. During the Hundred Years’ War (1337–1453) it played an important rôle in connection with the revenues and taxation. It was not yet a law-making body. As kings gained power, backed by a standing army, they grew more inde-
