182 Meteoric Shower of November, 1836. 
“ Although these inductions are very evident to myself, and seem 
to be necessarily derived from the facts, and from the laws of attrac- 
tion, I only offer them with extreme diffidence, because I know how 
easy it is to be deceived in such matters by the most probable anal- 
ogies, which we cannot verify by rigorous calculations. It is scarcely 
necessary for me to state, that all the circumstances of position, di- 
rection, and periodicity, peculiar to the meteors of the 13th of No- 
vember have been collected and made known by Mr. Olmsted, (of 
America,) in a very comprehensive and highly interesting work. He 
attributes this phenomenon to the existence of a great meteoric cloud, 
circulating round the Sun in an orbit inclined about 7 degrees tow- 
ards the ecliptic. This is also very nearly the inclination of the solar 
equator and nebula. In order that this cloud may come in collision 
with the Earth on the 13th of November, he places it at the same 
distance from the Sun in its ascending node ; but only wishing the 
collision to take place at this point, he gives it a revolution of six 
months, in an ellipse, the aphelion of which answers to the node of 
the 13th of November. This peculiarity, besides being improbable, 
does not appear to me to be necessary to the hypothesis; for every 
ellipse sufficiently different from the terrestrial ellipse by its flattened 
form, or the actual position of its perihelion, would fulfil the same 
conditions.* Mr. Olmsted, in the addition to his first work, publish- 
ed in 1836, says, that he also thought the phenomenon of 1833 might 
have some affinity with the zodiacal light; and, asa sign of this 
connection, he makes the curious remark, that in 1833 the zodiacal 
ight was unusually apparent, much more so than in 1834 or 1835. 
But he infers, that the meteoric cloud may be precisely this very 
light, more apparent in November because seen in its aphelion at a 
lesser distance from the Earth, whilst six months afterwards, about 
the 10th of May, being come back to the same node, and the Earth 
being on the other side of the Sun, we see it in opposition at a greater 
distance, and consequently under a smaller apparent diameter. Now 
these purely optical variations, which must take place in every posi- 
tion of the Earth, according to the laws of perspective, for a finite 
* Professor Olmsted does not consider the period of six months as an essential 
part of his theory, but admits that it may be a year. Thus, in the last number of 
this Journal, page 394, he observes as follows:—‘ In the present state of our knowl- 
edge on this subject, I regard it as a point open for inquiry, whether it will best 
accord with all the phenomena of shooting stars, to give to the meteoric body @ 
” 
period of nearly one year, or of half a year. 
