1 54 Intelligence and Miscellaneous Articles. 



Observers have generally chosen their time for making these re- 

 searches. For our part, a clouded sky alone interrupts our observa- 

 tions, to which we return, at any hour in the night, as soon as the 

 state of the sky permits. My registers give the following results : 

 from the month of July 1841 to the month of February 1845, 5302 

 shooting stars observed in 1054 hours. I have grouped, in the differ- 

 ent tables contained in my memoir, these observations in such a 

 manner as to be able to deduce from them results relatively to the 

 greater or less frequency of these meteors, according to the hours, 

 months and years. It will be conceived that, on this latter point, I 

 do not yet pretend to draw any conclusions from observations which 

 do not extend in a regular manner over more than four years ; but 

 as to the horary and mensual variations, I think that I have already 

 arrived at two general laws. Thus, in each month comprised be- 

 tween the winter and summer solstices, the mean number of falling 

 stai's, for one hour, is very sensibly the same ; and this is also the 

 case during the six other months ; with this difference, however, that 

 for the latter, the mean is nearly double what it is for the others, and 

 the change takes place, so to speak, without transition. With re- 

 gard to the horary variations, on the contrary, there is a gradual 

 change, and from six o'clock in the evening, which is the hour of 

 the minimum, the number of the appearances goes on increasing 

 continually up to six in the morning, which is the moment of the 

 maximum. 



In the second part the author treats of the directions of shooting 

 stars. The following is the distribution of 1000 of these meteors 

 relatively to the sixteen angular spaces into which he divides the 

 horizon, proceeding in the direction north, east, south, west : — 74, 

 90, 82, 91, 114, 86, 70, 79, 63, 34, 29, 28, 33, 28, 35, 64; which 

 shows that many more stars come from the east than from the west, 

 and nearly as many from the north as from the south. 



The author thinks that the difference between the number of stars 

 observed in the two directions, east and west, is attributable to the 

 twofold motion of the earth. 



There are mensual variations which it is difficult to determine. 

 In winter, the influence of the south is the greatest possible ; in 

 summer the influence of the north is very perceptible. With regajd 

 to the influence of the east, it is the weakest in summer, and the 

 strongest in spring and in autumn. 



The horary variations are more marked. Those from the north 

 are most numerous towards midnight, and least so in the morning. 

 With respect to the east, there are most in the morning and fewest 

 in the evening. From the south there are often the most in the 

 morning ; lastly, from the west there are most in the evening. 



In the third part of his memoir, the author treats first of the 

 magnitude of shooting stars ; he gives the name globe jilant to every 

 meteor which presents a sensible disc, and reserves the name of shoot- 

 ing stars for the meteors which have an appearance analogous to 

 that of the fixed stars and the planets. He calls them of the first 

 magnitude when they appear equal to Venus or Jupiter; of the 



