4 1 S Observations on certain 



is given to bodies, and the agency of rendering bodies inflammable 

 is exerted at tlie opposite surface ; and similar chemical effects 

 are produced by negative electricity, and by the most refrangible 

 rays of the solar beam. In general, in nature, the effects of the 

 solar ravs are very compounded. Healthy vegetation depends 

 upon the presence of the solar beams, or of light; and whilst the 

 heat gives fluidity and mobility to the vegetable juices, chemical 

 effects like wise are occasioned, oxygen is separated from them, 

 and inflammable compounds formed. Plants deprived of light 

 become white, and contain an excess of saccharine and aqueous 

 particles ; and flowers owe the variety of their hues to the influ- 

 ence of the solar beams. Even animals require the presence of 

 the rays of the sun, and their colours seem materially to depend 

 upon the chemical influence of these rays: a comparison between 

 the polar and tropical animals, and between the parts of their 

 bodies exposed, and those not exposed to light, shows the cor- 

 rectness of this opinion. 



[To be continued.] 



LXXIV. Observations on certain luminous Meteors called Falling 

 Stars. By Dr. T. Forster, M.B. F.L.S. &c. 



■^ Hartwell, E. Grinstead, .Tune 2, 1S21. 



Sir, — A OBSERVED this morning the Queries of Mr. J. Farey 

 Sen., respecting Shooting Stars, as they are commonly called; 

 and I beg leave through your useful Magazine, to communicate 

 such information and references to this subject as at present occur 

 to me. I have for many years been an attentive observer of these 

 curious meteors, and have noticed their peculiarities, and the par- 

 ticular states of the atmosphere in which they occur, with a view 

 to ascertain their nature, and their relation to electrical phseno- 

 niena^ 



On the large meteors, such, for example, as the great meteor of 

 August 18, 17S3, many treatises have been written, to which I 

 have referred in a small work on atmospheric phrenomena*. I 

 have there alluded to the probable connexion between these phse- 

 noniena, and the aerolites called Meteoric Stones, and to the cu- 

 rious observations of the late M. J. A. De Luc on this subject. 



How far the smaller meteors called Falling Stars may be re- 

 ferable to similar causes, I am at present unable to say ; neither 

 would I venture, in the present stage of the inquiry, to adopt any 

 particular hypothesis to explain them.' The first object in me- 

 teorology, as in all sciences, must be to obtain an accurate series 

 of facts well arranged. With this view, I have for upwards of 



* Researches about atmospheric Phaenomena, by T. Forster, London, 

 1814, 2d edition, p. 114. 



thirteen 



