74 The SeientiJiG Year. [Jan., 



the master-mind, to whom is reserved the privilege, to whom is 

 given the power, to construct from those fragmentary truths a 

 systematic whole, is still wanting. 



The year may be regarded as one peculiarly inductive. There 

 has been great earnestness amongst the disciples who are devoted 

 to the watching of the lamps which burn in the many shrines 

 within the temple of truth, and many varieties of the constituent 

 parts of the fuel, by which the flames are fed, have been collected 

 by them ; but the generalizing mind, — the deductive philosopher, — 

 by whom alone those fragmentary facts can be concreted into a 

 complete whole, has not appeared. The evidences, however, of 

 this will be far more satisfactory to the thoughtful reader than any 

 expression of opinion by the writer of this notice. We shall, 

 therefore, endeavour very briefly to sketch out the more striking 

 facts which have been gained during the year, and indicate, where ' 

 we can, the paths along which advances may be expected to be 

 made. 



Nothing within the range of the sciences of observation can be 

 more satisfactory than the records of Astronomy, especially as it 

 respects the extended observations on the flights of meteors, the 

 spectroscopic analysis of the nebulae and of the stars, and the inves- 

 tigation of the luminous excrescences observed during the period of 

 total obscuration upon the edge of the eclipsed sun. The shooting 

 star, " a moment bright, then gone for ever," has long been 

 regarded as an interesting phenomenon; but who amongst even 

 the wisest, in past years, dreamed of the remarkable truths which 

 are now opening upon us? By the careful record of all the 

 facts which could be gathered together respecting the appearance, 

 and the characters of those meteors, we have advanced our know- 

 ledge in a remarkable manner, and there appears to be no reason 

 for doubting the conclusions at which our observers have arrived, 

 that many belts of meteors are moving with planetary regularity 

 within the limits of the solar system. The most remarkable of 

 those belts is made known to us by the " November flight." The 

 beautiful — almost sublime — meteoric showers, which have been 

 seen about the 14th of that month, have a duration of about five 

 hours. The earth traverses the meteor stratum in space at the 

 rate of 18,000 miles an hour; consequently, this gives us an ex- 

 panse of 90,000 miles, more or less densely filled with those 

 mysterious bodies. The maximum of intensity of the meteoric 

 bursts lasts but about an hour ; within that period these " shoot- 

 ing stars " have been counted liy hundreds. How thickly, there- 

 fore, must that — probably the central line — of the bed be 

 strewn with them. The part traversed by the earth varies by 

 milhons of miles from year to year ; therefore, as each November 

 brings again a recurrence of the phenomena, wo have the proof 



