ASTRONOMY AND METEOROLOGY. 297 



the comet with that of the meteoric bodies. There were two 

 theories as to these meteors. Leverrier had shown that their 

 orbit extended from that of Uranus to that of the earth, while 

 Schiaparelli believed that they came from the utmost fields of 

 space. 



Prof. Herschel said it was too bold to say that every shooting 

 star was a comet. They were more likely the dissipated parts ot 

 comets, probably comets torn into shreds by the sun's attraction 

 drawing them into space. 



M. Schiaparelli, Director of the Brera Observatory at Milan, 

 has announced the elliptic elements of the orbit of the meteoric 

 shower of last November, in a comparative view with those of the 

 orbits of two late comets, that of 1862 and the first of 1866, 

 pointing out the important coincidence of all their details, to a 

 fraction of a degree in most cases. Thus, the revolution of the 

 comet of 1866 is calculated as 33.18 years, corresponding closely 

 to that of the swarm of shooting stars. Comparing with the 

 great comet of 1862, Schiaparelli gives for the orbits of the shower 

 and the comet respectively the following elements, the coinci- 

 dence of which will be found very striking : longitude of peri- 

 helion, 343 28' and 344 41' ; longitude of ascending node, 138 

 16' and 137 27' ; inclination of orbit, 64 3' and 66 25' ; perihelion 

 distance, 0.9643 and 0.9626 ; perihelion passage, August, 10.75 

 and 22.9. 



Leverrier has done M. Schiaparelli's discovery the honor of 

 adopting it as his own, and reproduced it with some elucidation 

 in a letter at the Academy of Sciences, January 21st. Schiaparelli 

 had published his comparative calculation in the observatory 

 bulletin for Dec. 31st, and a complete mathematical theory of the 

 phenomena in " Les Mondes" of January 25th. 



M. Leverrier is quoted to the effect that the tricennial shower is 

 a swarm of asteroids coming toward us from the depths of space, 

 at regular intervals, and returning toward the superior planets. 

 A bod} 7 coming from a distance, with great velocity at the mo- 

 ment when it attains the minimum distance of the earth from the 

 sun, could not be fixed in an orbit of one or two years by the 

 feeble action of the inferior planets. This truth finds a physical 

 proof in the fact that the shower of falling stars which repasses 

 the earth every 33 years is not deranged in the configuration of 

 its orbit, but returns at regular intervals. M. Leverrier also 

 assumes that the mass of shooting stars could not have been in- 

 troduced and thrown into its actual orbit but by some energetic 

 disturbance ; and, remarking that its orbit crosses that of Uranus, 

 concludes that all the phenomena may be explained by the col- 

 lision of a globular cluster with Uranus at about the year 126 of 

 our era. The latter suggestion meets with doubt, and it is re- 

 marked, as to the period, that passages quoted by M. Schiaparelli 

 in his article, from the ancient Indian poems, seem to show that 

 the November meteoric shower had been observed long before 

 A. D. 126. 



The expected meteoric display came off early in the morning 

 of the 14th Nov., and, so far as numbers are concerned, Prof. 



