On Shooting Stars. 97 
Henry William Brandes, at present Professor of Physics in the 
University of Leipsic, was born July 27, 1777, in Groden, near 
Hamburg, where his father was pastor. From 1786 to 1793 he re- 
ceived instruction in the high school at Otterndorf, where he was 
made acquainted with the elements of Mathematics. As however, 
his family circumstances held out no prospect of a literary career, he 
left the Gymnasium, in order to learn practically hydraulic engineer- 
ing, under Woltmann, a director in this department. Here he com- 
pleted his mathematical studies mostly by himself, and in 1794 and 
5, under Woltmann’s direction, he had charge of the works upon the 
island Newark, then inhabited only by six peasant families. Here 
the hermit life which he was compelled to lead, permitted him to 
pursue his studies at pleasure. Having no prospect of any official 
appointment, he went in 1796, by Woltmann’s advice, to Gottingen, 
where he studied till 1798. He busied himself also in Gottingen, 
inasmuch as some appointment in hydraulic engineering still floated 
before him as his future aim, more with architecture, surveying, 
&c., than with the higher mathematics and physics, which he regar- 
ded rather as auxiliary studies. His connexion with Benzenberg, 
occasioned in 1798,*the first observations of the latter on Shooting 
Stars. In 1799 and 1800 he gave in Hamburg, elementary in- 
struction in Mathematics ; and in 1801, on the recommendation of 
Woltmann, he received the appointment of Director of the dikes in 
the’Duchy of Oldenburg. In 1811, he unexpectedly received a 
call as Professor of Mathematics in Breslau; and this station he 
continued to hold, declining mean time an invitation to Dorpat in 
1818, until 1826, when he accepted a call at Leipsic, as Professor 
of Physics. 
The observations of which it is proposed to give a brief account 
were commenced in April 1823, and continued, with interruptions, 
to the middle of the following October. The times of observation 
were from 8 to 10, or from 9 to 11 o’clock in the evening ; the pla- 
ces were Breslau, Brechelshof, Dresden, Leipe, Mirkau, Trebnitz, 
Neisse, Brieg and Gleiwitz. Of these, Breslau and Gleiwitz were 
the most important, and those between which most of the coinciden- 
ces occurred. Their distance from each other is about ninety Eng- 
lish miles. Prof. Brandes with several of his pupils, made the ob- 
servations at the former place. The number of meteors seen on 
the different evenings, was very various. On August 8th, sixty five 
were noted at Breslau; on August 10th, one hundred and forty were 
Vou. XXVIII.—No. 1. 
