Mr Galloway on Shooting-Stars and Meteors. 395 



servations at Altona and Breslaw, Professor Boguslawski com- 

 puted the difference of longitude of the two places to be 28^ 

 22s. 07, which differs less than a second from that which had 

 been previously adopted. In Silliman's American Journal for 

 October 1840, an account is given of simultaneous observa- 

 tions made on the 25th of November 1835, at Philadelphia, and 

 at the College of New Jersey, at Princeton. Seven coinci- 

 dences were observed, and the mean result gave a longitude 

 differing only l s .2 from the mean of other determinations ; the 

 whole difference being two minutes. This appears to have 

 been the first actual determination of a difference of longitude 

 by meteoric observations. In the corresponding observations 

 of Wartmann and Reynier at Geneva and Planchettes, the 

 differences of longitude deduced from three of the meteors, 

 which were attended with peculiarities so remarkable as to 

 leave no doubt of their identity, were respectively 2m, 2™ 3 s , 

 2 m 5 s , whence it would seem that a single observation may be 

 in error to the amount of several seconds of time. In the 

 Jjiuliot/teque TJniverselle de Geneve for August 1810, there is 

 given an account of the determination by this method of the 

 difference of longitude between Rome and Naples. The cor- 

 responding observations were begun in November 1838, and 

 were continued at intervals under the direction of Father Vico 

 at Rome, and of Capocci and Nobili at Naples. The apparent 

 paths of the meteors were traced on a celestial globe, and the 

 times of appearance and extinction compared with clocks regu- 

 lated by astronomical observations. The observed times of 

 the extinction of the phenomena presented a very satisfactory 

 agreement, inasmuch as it is stated that there was in general 

 a difference of only a few tenths of a second of time between 

 the partial results for a difference of longitude amounting to 

 7 m 5 S .7. The merit of first suggesting the use of shooting- 

 stars and fire-balls as signals for the determination of longi- 

 tudes is claimed by Dr Olbers and the German astronomers 

 for Benzcnberg, who published a work on the subject in 1802. 

 Mr Baily, however, has pointed out a paper published by Dr 

 Maskelyne twenty years previously, in which that illustrious 

 astronomer calls attention to the subject, and distinctly points 

 out this application of the phenomena. The paper, which is 

 printed on a single sheet, is entitled " A plan for observing 



