M. Wartmann on the Periodical Meteors of Nov. 13th. 267 



in view, sufficiently shows the propriety, I would almost say 

 the necessity, of considering shooting stars as a distinct class 

 of phenomena. 



In bringing together the different data furnished by obser- 

 vation, and in considering the particular circumstances con- 

 nected with them, we may be led in some measure to conjec- 

 ture that the source of this singular phenomenon is, perhaps, 

 an electric focus, of which the determining cause is not yet 

 known. But we must bear in mind that, in the region of hy- 

 pothesis, and especially when we treat of a new subject as yet 

 very little studied, analogy alone, whatever verisimilitude it 

 may appear to possess, is not a basis sufficiently sure to found 

 an opinion upon. I give this idea, therefore, only as a simple 

 inference. It would, besides, be difficult to rank the shooting 

 stars, which are seen unaccompanied with noise, in the cata- 

 logue of aerolites, whose fall, which often happens by day, is 

 generally attended by a hissing in the air, by decrepitation, re- 

 peated detonations, and a smell more or less intense. 



According to a communication made last year to the Acade- 

 my of Sciences of Paris*, M. Millet Daubenton observed on the 

 13th of November, 1835, at about nine in the evening, the 

 sky being serene, a luminous meteor, having the appearance 

 of an incandescent globe, which exploded in the air and set on 

 fire a barn covered with wood and thatch, near the chateau of 

 Lauzieres, in the department of Ain. M. Millet, according 

 to his own account, is the only observer who saw the immense 

 shower of fire that the meteor formed after bursting. This mere 

 chance, which gave value to his observation, induced him to 

 try if he could not find some stone of an unknown nature near 

 the house and in the surrounding fields, and, indeed, he asserts 

 that he picked up two of the size of a small egg. It is much 

 to be regretted that the Academy after having begged M. 

 Millet to send one of these specimens that they might ascer- 

 tain its nature and make an analysis of it, has as yet kept si- 

 lence respecting the examination of this meteoric product so 

 interesting by its date. 



Although thirty-seven years have passed since the 12th of 

 November, 1799, the time when MM. Humboldt and Bon- 

 pland saw, at Cumana, a very unusual appearance of shooting 

 stars which greatly excited their attention, our stock of know- 

 ledge respecting the cause and nature of this majestic pheno- 

 menon has remained very incomplete. 



Without doubt we have yet to bring together many facts, 

 to gather many observations, to arrange them, to discuss them, 



* See the Comptes Rendus, vol. i. [>. 414. 

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