394 Mr Galloway on Shooting-Stars and Meteors. 



From the difficulties attending every hypothesis which has 

 hitherto been proposed, it may be inferred how very little real 

 knowledge has yet been obtained respecting the nature of the 

 shooting-stars. It is certain that they appear at great alti- 

 tudes above the earth, and that they move with prodigious 

 velocity ; but everything else respecting them is involved in 

 profound mystery. From the whole of the facts M. Wartmann 

 thinks that the most rational conclusion we can adopt is, that 

 the meteors probably owe their origin to the disengagement of 

 electricity, or of some analogous matter, which takes place in 

 the celestial regions on every occasion in which the conditions 

 necessary for the production of the phenomena are renewed. 



Attempts to deduce differences of Longitude from the Obser- 

 vation of Falling Stars. — The concluding part of the paper con- 

 tains an account of the different attempts which have been 

 made to deduce differences of longitude from the observation 

 of shooting-stars. That meteors which appear and are extin- 

 guished so suddenly, and which, by reason of their great alti- 

 tude and brilliancy, are visible over considerable portions of the 

 earth's surface, would afford excellent natural signals, provided 

 they could be identified with certainty, was an obvious thought ; 

 but so long as they were regarded merely as casual pheno- 

 mena, it could scarcely be hoped that they would be of much 

 use, in this respect, to practical astronomy. As soon, however, 

 as their periodicity became probable, the observation of the 

 phenomena acquired a new interest. In observing the me- 

 teors for this purpose, it is assumed that they appear instanta- 

 neously to observers stationed at a distance from each other, 

 and that the meteors seen by different observers so placed are 

 identically the same. These points are not altogether free 

 from uncertainty ; but the results of the trials that have been 

 already made may be regarded as favourable, and as shewing 

 that among the other methods of determining astronomical 

 positions, the observation of shooting-stars is not to be disre- 

 garded. At the November meeting of this Society, in 1839, 

 an account was given of Professor Schumacher's observations 

 at Altona on the night of the 10th of August 1838. On the 

 same night corresponding observations were made at several 

 observatories in Germany ; but those at Breslaw appear to 

 have been the most successful. From twelve coincident ob- 



