On the Origin of Shooting Stars 



371 



Having now adverted to certain 



" errors" 



committed by Mr. 

 Clarke, I ought perhaps to point them out more particularly. The 

 argument of Mr. C. is as follows :* 



" They [the meteors] were first seen [at New Haven] at Ik. 4m. A. M. Novem- 

 ber 13. They were seen in Dorsetshire, at 11 P. M. on the 12th. 



The Longitude of New Haven is 72° 50't 



The Longitude of Poole is 



1°58' 







70° 52'=4A. 43?». 23*. 



Therefore, Ik. Am. New Haven time is equivalent to bh. 41m. 28s. Poole time; 

 which added to 1 hour, the difference of time between the hour of observation 

 here and midnight, gives 6k. and 4m. 2Ss. the interval which elapsed between the 

 first appearance of the meteors in England and America. If then these meteors 

 betoken the presence of a cometic body, it moves ivestwardl]/ } and the position of 

 Professor Olmsted is untenable. t This is a fatal argument for the hypothesis; 

 and we are driven to the conclusion that the idea of the meteors being altogether 

 electrical, arising from a certain state of the atmosphere, in certain years, at a 

 certain period of the year, is sufficient to explain their occurrence." . 



Now the argument of Mr. Clarke, goes to prove just the opposite 

 of what he asserts. For, let ABC represent the earth and atmos- 

 phere turning on its axis from west 



to east in the direction BC A, and 

 let M represent the extreme por- 

 tions of a nebulous body situated 



• 



in 



space 



Let C be the meridi- 



an of Poole, and D that of New 



Ha 



ven. 



At 1 1 o'clock, on the night of 

 November 12th, the point C came 

 so near the nebulous body that 

 meteors began to descend from it 

 to the earth. Four hours and for- 

 ty three minutes afterwards, that 

 is, when it was 1 1 o'clock at New Haven, the point D comes into 

 the same position ; and provided M remains at rest relatively to the 

 earth, and its extreme portions remain unaltered, then we might ex- 

 pect that the meteoric display would commence at New Haven at the 

 same hour of the night, or at 11 o'clock. But it commenced about 



Loudon's Magazine of Natural History ', for March, 1835. 

 t More accurately, 72° 57' 46". i 



t Namely, that the supposed nebulous body moves in an orbit around the sun 



West 



