In the direction of the axis of the cylinder, the
distances of the boundary are least, so that we see fewer stars.
The farther we direct our attention towards the equatorial regions
of the system, the greater the distance from us to the boundary,
and hence the more stars we see. The fact that the increase in the
number of stars seen towards the equatorial region of the system
is greater, the smaller the stars, is the natural consequence of
the fact that distant stars come within our view in greater
numbers towards the equatorial than towards the polar regions.
Objections have been raised to the Herschelian view on the ground
that it assumes an approximately uniform distribution of the stars
in space. It has been claimed that the fact of our seeing more
stars in one direction than in another may not arise merely from
our looking through a deeper stratum, as Herschel supposed, but
may as well be due to the stars being more thinly scattered in the
direction of the axis of the system than in that of its equatorial
region. The great inequalities in the richness of neighboring
regions in the Milky Way show that the hypothesis of uniform
distribution does not apply to the equatorial region.
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