Ametican Philosophical Society. 67 



German. This was an instrument to determine the hfting- power of 

 electro-magnets, and differs from the ordinary steel-yard in having 

 the power applied between the fulcrum and the weight. The latter 

 is fixed on wheels ; the lever is counterpoised by a weight passing 

 over a pulley. It would be difficult to describe the minutiae of ar- 

 rangement without a plate for reference. 6th, " On a New Electro- 

 meter," by J. C. Oersted. Coulomb's rod is in this instrument a 

 brass wire, hanging from a silk fibre by a small iron stirrup slightly 

 magnetized. The ends of the rod rest against a semicircle of brass, 

 by means of which the electricity is communicated. It is stated as 

 being extremely delicate, but nothing is said in explanation of the 

 magnetized stirrup. 7th, Mr. Weekes's Register for November. 

 The Secretary stated that he had received from Prof. Jacobi the 

 description of other apparatus, which would be submitted to the 

 Society at the next meeting, January 18, 1842. 



AMERICAN PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY. 



June 1 8, 1 84 1 . — Mr. Walker read a letter from Professor Forshey, 

 of Natchez, giving an account of several interesting displays of me- 

 teors. 



Mr. Walker observed, that the display of the 20th of April, which 

 was noticed in Virginia in 1803, and which has been referred to by 

 MM. Arago, Quetelet, Herrick and others, was watched for by Mr. 

 Herrick in the last three years, without any remarkable result. Cor- 

 responding observations were made in the present year at Cambridge, 

 New Haven, Philadelphia and Washington, on the 19th, the 20th 

 and 21st being cloudy, from 11 o'clock till midnight; but the num- 

 ber of meteors seen was not greater than usual. In the morning 

 of the 19th, however, a gentleman of Philadelphia, Mr. William F. 

 Kintzing, counted eight in the course of ten minutes, shortly after 

 midnight. 



At about 8 o'clock on the same night, the 18th, at Vidalia, in Louis- 

 iana, Prof. Forshey noticed an unusual number of meteors in different 

 parts of the heavens, and on tracing their paths backwards, found 

 that they traversed the constellation Virgo. Having commenced 

 precise observations at half-past eight, and continued them for three 

 hours, he saw in two hours and a quarter, forty-five minutes being 

 lost in recording, sixty meteors, of which all but five passed within 

 10" from the common radiant point. These meteors were very un- 

 like those of the August shower, being chiefly without trains, and 

 of a reddish colour, few of them of the first magnitude, and the 

 greater number of the third and inferior magnitudes. Their veloci- 

 ties were remarkably equal and gentle ; their paths short ; and their 

 light first increasing, then waning, as if they were moving on a chord 

 to the circle of visibility. Professor Forshey determined their ra- 

 diant point to be in a line drawn from Spica to Q Virginis, somewhat 

 nearer to Spica, say in R. A. 198°, S. Decl. 8°. The convergent 

 point was, therefore, in Ion. 19°-G, and lat. N. 0°-3, while the ob- 

 server's motion was towards a point of the ecliptic in long. 299°. 

 This gives a deflection of the path of the meteors, relatively to the 

 F2 



