270 M. Quetelet on the Height, Motion, and Nature 



Places of Observation. 



Breslaw .... 



Neisse 



Mirkan .... 

 Gleiwitz .... 



Brieg 



Trebnitz .... 

 Cracow .... 



Leipe 



Berlin 



Brechelshof, 

 Dresden ..., 



Shooting 



Stars 

 observed. 



650 



307 



65 



356 



144 



36 



43 



36 



7 



26 



40 



No. of 

 Hours, 



50 



30 



8 



44 



20 



6 



8 



8 



4 



16 



26 



Mean No. 

 per Hour. 



130 

 10-2 

 8-1 

 8*1 

 7-2 

 6-0 

 54 

 4-5 

 1*8 

 1-6 

 1-6 



Number of the Observers. 



Brandes and his assistants. 

 Several observers. 

 One observer. 



Two 



One 



One 



One 



One 



One 



One 



Two 



The following are the results of the observations which M. Que- 

 telet made at Brussels in 1824 during ten evenings, together with 

 those made at Liege by MM. Van Rees, and Plateau ; and at Ghent 

 by MM. Morren and Manderlier : 



After this communication of M. Quetelet, M. Sauveur stated, 

 that being on the road from Brussels to Liege in the night of the 

 8th of last August, he observed a considerable number of shooting 

 stars, of which several were remarkable for their size and bril- 

 liancy. 



M. Quetelet suggests that this epoch presents a singular agree- 

 ment with that of the 10th of August, which the results of obser- 

 vations of shooting stars point out as one of those which are to be 

 remarked for the abundance of meteors of this kind. (See on this 

 subject Brandes's Untersuchen iiber die Entfernung und Bahnen der 

 Sternschuppen ; Leipzig, 1825; and Chladni's Feuer -meteor e, p.. 89.) 



Wishing to aid in throwing more light on this interesting and yet 

 little known branch of meteorology the Academy has resolved to 

 propose for 1837 a series of observations on shooting stars. 



III. On the Height, Motion, and Nature of Shooting Stars. 

 By M. Quetelet.* 



Shooting stars, those meteors so long neglected by philosophers, 

 are beginning at last to engage their attention. We ask ourselves 

 how it happens, that whilst measuring even to the minutest circum- 

 stances the motion of those heavenly bodies which are at the extre- 

 mity of our solar system, and which, by their very distance, escape 

 the attention of the many, greater thought should not have been be- 

 stowed on a more careful examination of the nature and cause of 



From the Annuaire de I ' Observatoire de Bruxelles for 1837. 



