ASTRONOMY AND METEOROLOGY. 375 



On the night of the 20th of October, two additional asteroids were dis- 

 covered at the Observatory at Paris by MM. Goldschmidt and Chacornac. 

 The 32d asteroid has received the name of Pomona. 

 The 33d asteroid has received the name of Polymnia. 



COMETS DISCOVERED DURING THE YEAR 1854. 



The first comet of 1854 was discovered by M. Meuciaux, near Dama- 

 zan, in France. It was visible to the naked eye on the 29th of March 

 and the few succeeding days. 



The second comet of 1854 was discovered by M. Klinkerfues, at Got- 

 tingen, June 4, 1854. 



The third comet of 1854 was discovered by Mr. Robert Tan Arsdale, 

 at Newark, X. J., 011 the 13th of September. It was also discovered on 

 the 11 th of September, by M. Klinkerfues, of Gottingen. 



ON THE SMALLER PLANETS. 



M. Leverrier has recently communicated to the French Academy a memoir 

 upon the smaller planets and their eccentric orbits and their irregularities ; 

 wherein, after stopping a moment to explain a phrase in a previous memoir, 

 (which had been misunderstood,) saying that when he assigned as the 

 " superior limit" of the total mass of all the small planets which circulate 

 between Mars and Jupiter a sum not exceeding one-quarter of the mass of 

 this earth, he was far from indicating any, even a probable, equivalent to 

 their mass, which may be inferior, very inferior, to one -fourth of the mass 

 of the earth. He was like a man who wished to weigh a mass of lead, 

 and had a pair of scales, but no weight except a weight of 100 pounds ; 

 and the lead being less than a 100 pounds, his weight would enable 

 him to ascertain this, but would not allow him to find by how much it 

 was less than one hundred pounds. So M. Leverrier, when he wished to 

 gauge this planetary mass in his astronomical scales (the orbit of Mars) 

 with the grand axis of the curve as the scales' needle or index, he knew 

 that the scales would not turn unless they were charged with a mass of 

 matter equal to one-quarter of the mass of our globe ; the scales did not 

 turn, and he knew the mass of these scattered planets does not equal one- 

 quarter of the mass of our globe, but how much they are less than that 

 he cannot say. After stopping to make this explanation, he communi- 

 cated to the Academy some new propositions which he has deduced from 

 a complete examination of the secular variations of the elements of the 

 orbits of this group of small planets. All of these orbits are characterized 

 by eccentricities and by considerable inclinations, or, in other terms, that 

 each of these small stars, in its translation movement around the sun, de- 

 scribes an oval and a greatly lengthened curve ; that the planes of these 

 several orbits, far from coinciding among themselves, as if traced on the 

 same plane, are greatly inclined to each other. In the present state of 



