EECEEATIVE SCIENCE. 



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I 



March 11 and 12, 1847 j 24 and 25, 1847 ; 



27 to 29, 1848. 



April 19 and 20, 1847 ; 20 and 23, 1848 ; 

 27, 1848; 19 and 20, 851. 



June 17 to 22, 1847 ; 21, 1848; 16, 1850. 



July 25 to 30, 1846 ; 4 and 5, 1847 ; 22 

 and 23, 1847 ; 6, 1848 ; 22 to 24, 1848 ; 29, 

 1848 ; 20 to 23, 1849 ; 26 and 27, 1849 ; 16 

 and 17, 1851 ; 30, 1851 ; 28 to 31, 1856. 



August 23 and 24, 1847 ; 21, 28, and 29, 

 1848. 



September 15, 1846 ; 4, 1848 ; 30, 1848 ; 

 2 and 30, 1850; 9 to 12, 1852; 17 and 18, 

 1852 ; 6 and 10, 1853. 



October 16, 1843; 18, 1844; 28, 30, and 

 31, 1845 ; 10, 1847 ; 20 to 23, 1848 ; 5 and 

 9, 1850 ; 16 and 17, 1851 ; 3, 5, and 25, 1853 ; 



28 to 31, 1856. 



November IS, 1843; 1, 1847; 5, 1848; 

 29, 1850 ; 3, 1852. 



December 21, 1846 ; 9 and 10, 1846 ; 12, 

 1847; 11, 14, and 15, 1848. 



Tlie August and Novemher periods {i.e., 

 9tli and lOtli of August and 12th to 14tli of 

 November) are omitted in the above list as 

 thoroughly established periods. Unfortu- 

 nately a prevalence of cloud, a paucity of 

 observers, and, lastly, the bulk of observers 

 extending their enthusiasm only to the Au- 

 gust and November epochs, tend much to 

 keep other periods in the background. 



We have not as yet had the good fortune 

 to witness the sky completely covered with 

 these fiery bodies for several hours together, 

 yet such instances have occurred. From four 

 to six a.m., on the 13th of November, 1833, in 

 the United States, they fell at the rate of more 

 than a thousand per minute, and all of them 

 diverged from a point situated in the constel- 

 lation Leo, near Eegulus. This display was 

 visible from longitude 61" in the Atlantic 

 Ocean, to 100" in Mexico, and from the "West 

 Indies to the North American Lakes. Similar 

 appearances took place in Cumana on the 

 12th of November, 1779 ; at Mocha on the 

 13th of November, 1832; on the 12th of 



November, 1799, at Cape Florida, Cumana, 

 Peru, and Greenland ; on the 13th of Novem- 

 ber, 1831, in Spain and on the Ohio ; and 

 vast numbers of meteors were seen on the 

 13th of November, 1834, 1835, 1836, and 

 1837, both in Europe and America. 



It is supposed that certain opaque bodies 

 are revolving through space within the 

 limits of the solar system ; some of which 

 fall to the earth as meteoric stones. The 

 volume of several are large, having been esti- 

 mated at 75 miles in diameter, and one to 

 have weighed 600,000 tons, and to have 

 moved at a velocity of 72,000 miles an hour. 

 The greatmeteor of the 11th of February, 1850 



1 W^^\\\\\\\ 



,o..o: 



O 



Fig. 1. 



(see Fig. 1, as seen at Oxford by Mrs. Baden 

 Powell), Mr. Glaisher calculated had a velo- 

 city of above 100,000 miles an hour. Some 

 astronomers conceive that meteors are solid 

 bodies, and become ignited on coming within 

 the earth's atmosphere, owing to the great 

 velocity with which they travel. Arago 

 looked upon them as nebulous matter, similar 

 to the tail of comets, and circxdating round 

 the sun in a zone that crosses the earth's 

 orbit about the 12th of November, and that 

 they took fire on entering the atmosphere 

 owing to their great speed. Sir John Lub- 

 bock, on the contrary, considers them 

 opaque bodies, which shine by the light of 

 the sun, and are only visible whilst they pass 

 through sunlight. In noticing the great 

 meteor of the 19th of December, 1855 (see 

 Figs. 2, 3, and 4, as seen at Highfield House), 

 it appeared to me that, instead of becoming 

 ignited, they caused, by their prodigious 

 speed, a peculiar phosphorescent sometldng 



