ame Stars of December x 1838. ee 
dre XIX. —Report on ae sShabicie Stars oF Doctor : 1838, 
with remarks on Shooting Stars in general. By Epwarp C. . 
Herrick, Record. Sec. of the Conn. —_ of Arts and Sciences. 
_ Ar the. acini of the Report on the meteors of last August, 
(p. 173 of this vol.) it was stated that on the night of Dee. 6, 1798, 
Brandes witnessed a remarkably large number of shooting stars.* 
This fact was first communicated to me in April last, by ‘Professor 
Loomis, of Western Reserve College. Believing that phenomena 
of this nature result from celestial causes more or less permanent, 
I at once entertained strong hopes and considerable expectation 
that a return of this display would now be seen on or about the 
same period of the year. I well. knew that our knowledge of the 
true system of shooting stars was too imperfect to warrant the 
prediction, that a meteoric display which had been once observed, 
would ever after, in greater or less degree, be visible at the same 
season, in all parts of the earth, Yet the fact that since proper 
observations have been made, a season of meteoric abundance has 
been detected, about the 10th of August and the 13th of No- 
* The entire account of this display is given in the following extract, the original 
of which arrived to-day in a letter from Prof. Loomis: The work from which it is 
taken, is entitled, ““ Versuche die Entfernung, die Geschwindigheit und die — 
der Sternschnuppen zu bestimmen: von J. J. Benzenberg un W. B 
Hamburg, 1800. 8vo.”-—* It will be proper here briefly to relate an inten 
Gottingen to my native place. As I was travelling, on the evening of the 6th of 
December, 1798, from Harburg to Buxtehude in an open post-wagon, I had the 
gratification of dest a larger number of-shooting stars than I had ever before wit- 
meee B noticed yas soon after the close. of evening twilight, and baving 
Ike 
f the number PP 
of the Mince which I ae with conyenience survey from miy seat. For the 
- sake of greater accuracy, at the end of every hundred, I noted the time by my 
watch, which there was just light enough to enable me to do. They appeared in 
~ such numbers that for about four hours, I ¢ounted as waney: as 100an hour. Occasion- 
ally they came at a much more rapid rate ;—often 6 or 7 in a minute. Afier this, 
[about 10 P. M.] they were much less frequent, and during the whole night, I saw 
only 480, although T had counted in the four first-hours alone, over 400. In order 
to be certain that no one portion of the sky was richer than the rest, I looked ocea- 
Sionally at other parts of the heavens, but found no difference. I may, therefore, 
Safely say, that on this evening;. many-thousand shooting stars must have been vis- 
ible above m my horizon.’’—It does not appear that Brandes noticed at this time any 
point of radiation; or that he watched in subsequent years for a return of the dis- 
play. The idea of a periodical shower of meteors had then probably never been 
advanced. 
Von. XXXY. —No. 2. Ab6 
