Proctor'* Astronomical Ltcturet. 



ternary In England to salute travelers with missiles!) 

 fLaughter.l 



We suppose the sun in this place, and the earth in 

 passing here is s alutcd with a shower ot stones. Thes 

 Btoues would be carried by attraction to the sun, and 

 there would be an end of the matter. How then does it 

 happen that for centuries the earth is thus saluted on 

 passing there by these meteors and e'uvt the force of 

 gravity has been resisted! If these stoues have a 

 motion of their own, they c;m travel around 

 the sun; there can be always a stream by which the 

 earth can be saluted with a shower of stones at that 

 particular place. To remove all doubt, lot us reason in 

 this way: If there were bodies traveling that way 

 (indicating it on the chart], and the earth was 

 passing there, these stones passing over a short 

 part of their course, and the earth passing over a short 

 part of its course, there would be a shower encountered 

 by the earth. Suppose a shower of rain is falling from 

 a particular part of the heavens, all the drops 

 eeem to come from a particular part of tha sky, 

 from a particular direction. Thus also would appear the 

 shower of stoues, only instead of having a certain rela- 

 tion to the horizon and the point overhead, they would 

 be related to that particular part of tiio starry heavens; 

 they would seem to rush from a particular part of the 

 heavens ; and this has been actually observed. 



Prof. Newton of Yale College notified to the astromo- 

 jners of Europe that there would be a great shower of 

 November meteors in 18GG plainly visible both in America 

 and Europe. In point of fact it was not well seen in 

 America but in Ea^land, and we know the differ- 

 ence of time is only a few hours, so that you see how 

 Closely he made his calculation. 



PERIOD OF THE METEOR STREAMS. 



As to the period in which they travel their course, it 

 Is a third of a century. That was the actual time when 

 the last great display took place, Arago being one of the 

 astronomers who described it most closely, and Hum- 

 boldt described another shower in 1779. If they travel 

 on their course, having a period of 33 3 ears, we might 

 account for the recurrence. 



But this t*eerns too immense. The^e objects, a few 

 grains in weight, have been traveling on such a course 

 of 33 years, which would correspond to a course carrying 

 theiii tar away outside Uranus, and that seemed to Prof. 

 Newton too grand, and showed that if they traveled a 

 thirty-third part of the year the same course that our- 

 nelves would follow, in another year they would be a 

 thirty-third part behind, and the next year another 

 thirty-third part behind, and the third year another 

 thirty-third part behind, and so on until the en.l of 33 

 years, they would be brought to their place again. 



But, meantime, a strange fact had been discovered. 

 The cornet of 18G2 was noticed to pass that part of the 

 earth's orbit corresponding very closely with the course 

 in which the August meteors eeem to come from, 

 and Schiaperelli saia they may be associated with 

 the comets, and Scbiaperelli concluded that the 

 meteors follow in the train of the comets, and supposing 

 thistobetrue.lt was possible to eivo the November 

 meteors a period of 33 years, which before seemed incred- 



l)c> 1 1 n > a VM, ail thsy would have such and suoh 

 acourso; and that being the case, the astronomers thought 

 they would look for comats in the paths of meteors. 

 They totmd that a comet had been observed that very 

 year 1866, traveling in that very course. There w.w 

 auoiher strange coincidence a small comet wai 

 seen traveling over the course assigned to 

 these meteors. Prof. Adams undertook to 

 show that the November meteors can havo 

 no other course than 33 years. It had boon noticed thas 

 where the earth encountered these meteors that parl 

 of the heavens had been slosvly advancing iu the direo- 

 tion which the earth travels the shifting ol 

 the nodes owing to the attraction of tha 

 celestial bodies and Prof, Adams calculated whether 

 the perturbation would be such if a year and 

 33d part were the true period o' these meteors, and ho 

 found that the perturbation would not be so great. lie 

 then took a period of 33 years and he found that tha 

 perturbation would be as lur^e as it was observed; SD 

 that he was the first to demonstrate chao they did travel 

 in 33 years. 



Everything seemed to be done to show that tho 

 meteors traveled in the track of the comets. Bat oua 

 test remained, and that was to predict that aftej 

 a comet had passed a certain place there would 

 be a shower of meteors, and the prediction would be 

 confirmed ; then there would he a new tan I of evidence. 

 And that evidence was given by that very Biela's cooi3t 

 which frightened people so much in 1832. which van- 

 ished in 1856. and was again looked for iu 1872. Alexan- 

 der Herschel, in England, predicted that when the earth 

 came to that part of her orbit, Nov. 26, 1872, there 

 would be probably a great display of meteors. 

 That happened. It was a glorious display in Eagland 

 and America, but it was still more gloriously seen in 

 Italy, where it appeared with all the glory d'r the large 

 meteor?, with a great number of minute ones. That 

 shower came from the foot of Andromeda, or the exact 

 puth that, the comet would have followed if 

 it had struck the earth. Then came in a 

 curious feature. It was suggested that siuco 

 this meteor shower had struck the earth, why should 

 not the astronomers on the other side of the earth look 

 out for them or the comet there I It was said that it was 

 Bida's comet which had struck the earth. It touched 

 the earth on Nov. 29. The comet was looked out for near 

 the shoulder of the Centaur. A nebulous object was seen 

 and identified. The next morning it was seen again and 

 it had shifted. That was not, the end of the 

 matter. Astrouomsrs made a calculation to see if the 

 meteor path accorded with expectations, but found it 

 did not; they were far behind many weeks behind. So 

 it seemed shown that there were streaks of meteors 

 traveling from the direction of the cotne.t's course. 

 Toese are a few facts that show that meteors are associ- 

 ated with comets. More than a hundred meteor streams 

 are encountered by the earth within a year. It baa 

 been discovered by Prof. Newton that this earth en 

 counters about 400,000,000 meteors every yeai. We have 

 then a very striking feature in the economy of our solar 

 aystcm. The meteors are following the course of tha 



