190 Reviews. [Jan. 
THE GREAT METEOR OF 1863.* 
Amonest the most startling of cosmical phenomena are the occasional 
appearances of Meteors of extraordinary size and luminosity. Coming 
without the forewarnings of gathering clouds and dropping rain, their 
sudden advent in a clear bright sky excites more astonishment in the 
common observer than the most vivid lightning, while the dull booming 
sound which follows their disappearance or explosion has more of 
mystery, and excites more terror than the pealing thunder which 
succeeds the electric flash. 
Almost as transient as— 
‘the borealis race 
Which flit ere you can trace their place,” 
the scientific observer is often as much at a loss to tell whence they 
come and whither they go as the ordinary witness of their brilliancy. 
He is generally but conscious of a momentary flash of light, and on 
looking to the heavens sees only the trail, something like a luminous 
scratch in the sky, left by the passing object. A debt of gratitude is 
therefore due to any philosopher who, like the author of the opuscule 
we notice, is at the pains to collect and compare the observations of 
any single example made at widely distant stations, and construct 
from the whole a connected narrative. 
On the evening of the 4th of March, 1863, at about seven o’clock, 
Dr. Heis, Professor of Astronomy and Mathematics in the Royal Academy 
of Miinster, was taking a walk in the open air. The sky was clear and 
bright, when suddenly the whole neighbourhood was for a moment 
lighted up as with Bengal fire, and looking upwards the Doctor saw 
passing majestically across the firmament a fire-ball which seemed to 
increase in size until it grew as large as the moon at full. Such an 
appearance of course excited astonishment in all who witnessed it, and 
as the author was known to take an especial interest in these phe- 
nomena,{ a few days brought him numerous communications on the 
subject. From these, some contributed by astronomers and physicists 
of great repute, as Baumhauer of Amsterdam, Quetéléet of Brussels, 
and Mr. Greg of Manchester, others from writers of no scientific 
repute, but as country clergymen telling no doubt truthfully what they 
believed they saw, and also from the results of his own inquiries 
among the most stupid of Belgian peasants, the author has drawn up 
this complete account of the form, apparent size, colour, brightness of 
the object, as well as the trail, and the manner in which it disappeared 
or exploded. 
* «Die grosse Feuerkugel, welche am Abende des 4 Marz, 1863, in Holland, 
Deutschland, Belgien, und England gesehen worden ist.’ Won Dr, Ed. Heis, Pro- 
fessor der Mathematik und Astronomie an der Konigl. Akademie zu Munster. 
Halle: H.W. Schmidt. 1863. 
The large fire-ball which was seen in Holland, Germany, Belgium, and Eng- 
land on the evening of the 4th of March, 1863, &c. &c. 
+ He had published an account of the large Fire Ball seen in Germany on the 
evening of the 4th December, 1861. 
