i, 
Pos 
REPORTS 
ON 
THE STATE OF SCIENCE. 
A Catalogue of Observations of Luminous Meteors; continued from 
the Reports of the British Association for 1848. By the Rev. 
Baven Powe, M.A., F.R.S. &c., Savilian Professor of Geo- 
metry, Oxford. 
In endeavouring to carry on the design of collecting in one record the obser- 
vatious of Luminous Meteors made in all parts of the world, commenced last 
year under the auspices of the British Association, I have received valuable 
aid from the communications with which I have been favoured by various cor- 
respondents ; among whom I cannot omit to acknowledge my most particular 
obligations to Dr. Buist of Bombay, and, for by far the most extensive series 
of observations (both of his own, and collected from several friends), to 
E. J. Lowe, Esq. I have also occasionally derived other important materials 
from several journals. The following Catalogue, besides observations of a 
date subsequent to the conclusion of my former list, fills up some of its de- 
fects by observations contemporaneous with it, and others belonging to former 
years. I have also been enabled to prefix some notice of still earlier pheeno- 
mena of this class. 
In ordinary cases the original statement has been entered in the Catalogue 
with only slight verbal abridgements: but where there is a description of any 
physical appearance I have always retained the words of the author; and in 
cases where there seemed to be any peculiarity, the original document at 
length is given in the Appendix. The éme is usually no more than the com- 
_ mon clock time, unless otherwise stated: but in all Mr. Lowe’s observations 
- it is Greenwich Mean Time. 
A continuation of communications is earnestly requested, addressed to the 
author at Oxford. 
I. A valuable collection of records of Luminous Meteors and Star-showers 
from ancient chronicles, extending from a.p. 338 to 1223, is given by M. 
H _ CuHAs tes in the Comptes Rendus, March 15, 1841. 
On a comparison of the results, M. Chasles remarks the absence of any 
periodical showers in August or November. But in the earlier years there 
_ appears such a periodicity in February, and afterwards in March and April. 
_ He conjectures that the meteoric matter may form aring, the plane of which 
_ changes continually ; and thus the same matter may in later years have caused 
_ the occurrence of the November meteors. 
1849, B 
