146 Meteoric Astronomy. [April, 
s and s’; in other words, so that s’ falls, as shown in Fig. 3, 
about 26 from 3, and s go°? from 3, we shall have 
on the celestial globe the arc ss’, along which the true 
radiant of the August meteors must lie. In other words, 
the August meteors are really travelling, when they cross 
the earth’s orbit, as if from a point, this point lying 
somewhere on an arc about 64° long, and having the same 
place upon the star sphere that the string arc corresponding 
to ss’ has upon the celestial globe. 
Thus far there has been no assumption whatever. More- 
over, without proceeding a step further, we can indicate a 
surprising coincidence which Schiaparelli was the first to 
recognise. The great comet of 1862 did beyond all question 
cross the earth’s orbit from the direction of this very arc, ss’, 
that is, as if travelling from a point lying somewhere on this 
arc. The elements of the comet as determined by Oppolzer 
sufficed to demonstrate this. Thus, without any assumption 
whatever, it was proved that comet and meteors reached the 
part E’ of the earth’s orbit along lines contained within one 
and the same sector of space, sE’s’. 
But Schiaparelli had already indicated reasons for 
believing that the velocity of the meteors was nearly equal 
to the maximum (indicated in Fig. 3 by the line m’E’). 
What he now did was to point out that, granted this 
assumption only, the point whence the meteors are directing 
their course as they cross the earth’s orbit lies close to s’ (on 
the side away from %, of course), and that the point 
whence the comet was directing its course when it crossed 
the earth’s track had appreciably the same posttion,— 
the comet’s velocity, on this assumption, being identical 
with the meteor’s velocity. 
So that to sum up—Assuming nothing, 1t was demonstrated 
that a comet and a meteor system, crossing the earth’s track at the 
same spot, have directions certainly so far agreeing as to le in 
the same sector in space—that sector having an angle of only 
64 degrees; and, assuming for the meteors a velocity corre- 
sponding to what had already been assigned as the probable value 
of this element, the comet and meteors cross the earth’s track on 
one and the same course and with identical velocities. 
This in reality indicates the full extent of the coincidence 
recognised by Schiaparelli. We must not go further, as 
some have done, and say that the orbit ring of the meteors 
was further found to coincide perfectly with the orbit of the 
comets. Still less must we (as an additional proof of coinct- 
dence) set the elements of the orbits side by side, as though 
the agreement of the two in respect of eccentricity, inclination, 
