388 Mr Galloway on Shooting-Stars and Meteors. 



on a more extensive scale, to determine the altitudes and 

 velocities of shooting-stars, by means of simultaneous obser- 

 vations, was made by Brandes in 1823, assisted by a number 

 of associates resident in Breslavv and the neighbouring towns. 

 The observations were continued from April to October, and 

 during this interval about 1800 shooting-stars were observed 

 at the different places, out of which number ninety-eight were ' 

 found which had been observed simultaneously at more than 

 one station. The altitudes of four of these were computed to 

 be under 15 English miles; of fifteen between 15 and 30 miles ; 

 of twenty-two between 30 and 45 miles; of thirty-five between 

 45 and 70 miles ; of thirteen between 70 and 90 miles ; and of 

 eleven above 90 miles. Two of these last had an altitude 

 of about 140 miles ; one of 220 miles ; one of 280 miles ; 

 and there was one whose height was computed to exceed 

 460 miles. Thirty-six orbits were obtained ; in twenty-six of 

 which the motion was downwards, in one horizontal, and in 

 the remaining nine more or less upwards. In three cases 

 only the observations were so complete as to furnish data for 

 determining the velocity ; the results were respectively 23, 28, 

 and 37 English miles in a second, the last being nearly double 

 the velocity of the earth in its orbit. The trajectories were 

 frequently not straight lines, but incurvated, sometimes hori- 

 zontally, and sometimes vertically, and sometimes they were 

 of a serpentine form. The predominating direction of the mo- 

 tion was from north-east to south-west, contrary to the mo- 

 tion of the earth in its orbit, — a circumstance which has been 

 generally remarked, and which is important in respect of the 

 physical theory of the meteors. 



QueteleCs Observations. — A similar set of observations was 

 made in Belgium in 1824, under the direction of M. Quetelet, 

 the results of which are published in the Annuaire de Brux- 

 elles for 1837. M. Quetelet was chiefly solicitous to deter- 

 mine the velocity of the meteors. He obtained six corres- 

 ponding observations from which this element could be de- 

 duced, and the results varied from 10 to 25 English miles in 

 a second. The mean of the six results gave a velocity of 

 nearly 17 miles per second, a little less than that of the earth 

 in its orbit. 



