294 Progress of Science respecting Igneous Meteors in 1823. 



behind a loaded waggon. He published his observations with 

 the view of their being compared with those of other persons 

 who might have seen the phoenomenon ; but no further account 

 of it has appeared*. 



I shall close this part of the subject with a fact of my own 

 observation. On the night of the 10th of December 1822, 

 whilst walking near the top. of Goswell Road, Islington, I 

 beheld, at about halt-past eleven, a very beautiful caudate 

 meteor, its general shape much resembling that of a trumpet ; 

 to which the smaller fire-balls of this kind have been frequently 

 compared. The head, which had a sort of burr around it, 

 appeared to be of about one-third of the diameter of the full- 

 moon, and was of a very brilliant white colour, with a tinge 

 of blue: the tail, which was very long, was also white at the 

 upper end, but of a full red colour for the lower and greater 

 portion of its length ; a circumstance, likewise, which has often 

 been noticed in meteors of this description. The meteor darted 

 down from near the zenith in a north-westerly direction, for 

 about 30°, the wider part seeming to become attenuated into 

 the tail, which disappeared in a few seconds without leaving 

 any track or other traces in the sky, then clear and star-light. 

 A similar phasnomenon, I was subsequently informed, had 

 been witnessed on the night of Nov. 5 ; and another on that 

 of Dec. 7. 



Dr. T. Forster, F.L.S. and Member of the Meteorological 

 Society, has published a third edition, corrected and enlarged, 

 of his " Researches about Atmospheric Phenomena ;" but the 

 chapter on Igneous Meteors and Meteorites, and the obser- 

 vations on those subjects in that on Electricity, remain as they 

 were in the second edition, published in 1815: the Calendar 

 of Nature, however, which the author has now appended to 

 his work, records some observations on Shooting Stars. He 

 remarks that those meteors are very prevalent about August ; 

 particularly with east winds. 



In No. III. of Gilbert's Annalen dcr Physik, for 1823, is 

 an announcement by Professor Brandes, of Breslau, of the 

 hours at which observations would be made on the same in- 

 teresting phamomena, at Quedlinbourg, Halle, Liegnitz, and 

 Breslau, during the year : I am not aware that the observa- 

 tions have been published. Prof. B. has furnished meteoro- 

 logists, at various times, with many useful observations on the 

 altitude, velocity, and magnitude of shooting-stax'S. 



Signor Angelo Bellani, of Pavia, a philosopher who has be- 

 come advantageously known to meteorologists by his an- 

 nouncement and subsequent investigation of the depression 

 * Annals of Philosophy, N. S. vol. v. 



which 



