M. Wartmann on the Periodical Meteors of Nov. 1 3th. 265 



that attained by the clouds, and that meteors of this kind 

 rarely fall to the surface of the earth, if they ever do. This 

 opinion acquires so much more probability, as no one till 

 now, at least so far as I know, has been able to obtain an au- 

 thentic specimen of this mysterious substance. 



A learned astronomer communicated to the Academy of 

 Sciences of Paris, in the session of the 5th of this month (De- 

 cember 1836) a curious and very interesting memoir, which 

 appears to suggest that the luminous nebulosity by which the 

 sun appears to be surrounded in the direction of its equator, 

 a nebulosity which is projected far into space, assuming the 

 form of a cone, and which has been known for two centu- 

 ries by the name of the zodiacal light, might probably be the 

 source of the myriads of shooting stars of the 13th of Novem- 

 ber, the earth at this epoch passing in the neighbourhood 

 of the summit of this cone. Nevertheless, the author of the 

 memoir, M. Biot, after having considered the subject under 

 different views and discussed it scientifically, ends by declaring 

 that he neither asserts nor rejects this identity*. 



Some writers think that the origin of the shooting stars 

 which compose the periodical phaenomenon of the 13th of No- 

 vember, might also be ascribed to a great planet which may 

 formerly have been broken into a multitude of fragments, 

 which would continue to circulate one after the other in an 

 orbit whose position is such that the earth approaches annu- 

 ally very near to it on the 13th of November. These frag- 

 ments, endowed with a great velocity of projection, would enter 

 our atmosphere at this period, cross it rapidly, and, by the 

 friction caused by the resistance of the air, would grow so hot 

 there as to become incandescent and to send forth a bright 

 light until the moment of their quitting it. 



This hypothesis, very ingenious as it may appear, is not 

 free from objection. Already a celebrated philosopher, whose 

 opinion is of great weight, has not hesitated to say that it 

 would be premature to attempt ascending to the physical 

 cause of these curious appearances until certain matters of fact 

 had been cleared upf; and assuredly M. Arago is right. 



It is certain that in one and the same night an innume- 

 rable multitude of these meteors have been seen in places 

 whose geographical situation differs 90° in longitude and six 

 hours in time, a circumstance which gives to their appearance 

 a duration of at least 18 hours ; our night being at this period 



* Comptes Rendu* de V Acad, de Paris, No. 23, December 1836, vol. iii. 

 p. 663. 



f Ibid, p. 633. 

 Third Series. Vol. 1 1. No. (57. Sept. 1837. 2 M 



