On the alleged periodical Meteors of November. 273 



bodies foreign to our earth. The Slst July 1824, I observed an 

 aerolite, or luminous mass, which presented very remarkable cir- 

 cumstances, left sparks on its passage, and must have fallen in the 

 neighbourhood of Antwerp. 



[The principal authorities and sources of information on the interesting 

 subjects of snooting stars and the alleged periodicity of certain appearances 

 of them, have been cited in the preceding papers of MM. Wartmann and 

 Quetelet ; but we may usefully add a few references in detail to the obser- 

 vations and researches of the physicists in the United States, who have been 

 the first to call attention to the apparent periodical previous appearance and 

 return of the brilliant shower of meteors witnessed in November, 1833. 



At present, the recurrence of the shower of meteors, as it has been termed, 

 is asserted to have taken place about the end of the second week in No- 

 vember, in the years 1799, 1831, 1832, 1833, 1834, 1885, and 1836. On 

 the other hand, many observers deny that any remarkable or unusual phse- 

 nomenon of the kind was seen, except in the years 1799 and 1833, affirming 

 that a greater number of shooting stars was observedin the other years (espe- 

 cially in those subsequent to 1833), merely because the attention of ob- 

 servers was specially directed to them at a certain time. The following 

 papers and notices, among others, have appeared in late volumes of Professor 

 Silliman's American Journal of Science and Arts. On the Meteors of Nov. 

 13, 1833 ; by Prof. E. Hitchcock : vol. xxv. p. 354. On the same subject, 

 and on the Meteors of Nov. 13, 1834, and of Nov. 1835 ; by Prof. D. Olm- 

 sted: vol. xxv. p. 363; vol. xxvi. p. 132; vol. xxix. p. 168, 377; vol. xxx. 

 p. 370. Investigations respecting the Meteors of Nov. \3th, 1833, &c. ; by 

 A. C. Twining : vol. xxvi. p. 320. Papers, by Prof. A. D. Bache, denying 

 that any recurrence of the phenomenon took place in November, 1834 : vol. 

 xxviii; and vol. xxix. p. 383. An Observation in Nov. 1833; vol. xxvi. 

 p. 397. An Observation in Nov., 1835; vol. xxix, p. 390. Letter from the 

 Rev. W. B. Clarke, denying the alleged periodicity ; vol. xxx. p. 369. A 

 more recent paper by Prof. Olmsted, has been reprinted by Prof. Jameson, 

 in his New Edinburgh Phil. Journal for July last. Prof. Olmsted's first 

 paper contains an extensive collection of observations of the Meteors of Nov. 

 13, 1833, made in different parts of the United States, and gives various in- 

 ductions from them. In it also is proposed a theory to explain the phseno- 

 mena, which is thus finally expressed: — " That the Meteors of Nov. 13//i 

 consisted of portions of the extreme parts of a nebulous body, which revolves 

 around the sun in an orbit interior to that of the earth, but little inclined to 

 the plane of the ecliptic, having its aphelion near to the earth's path, and having 

 aperiodic time o/182 days nearly." — Silliman's Journal, vol. xxvi. p. 172. 

 Some observations on shooting stars, made at Devonport in November, 

 1836, have been noticed in our last volume, p. 234. Observations of the 

 same period, made at Berlin, Breslau, Frankfort-on-the-Maine, and Gum- 

 mersbach, will be found in Poggendorf's Annalen, vol. xxxix. p. 353 — 356. 

 The frequent appearance of shooting stars in August had been noticed 

 in England by Dr. T. Forster, (see Phil. Mag., First Series, vol.lxiv. p. 294), 

 and at Pavia, we believe, by M. Bellani. — E. W. B.] 



Third Series. Vol. 1 1. No. 67. Sept. 1837. 2 N 



