388 Dr. Gladstone on the Periods and Colours 



dered the more probable when it is borne in mind that among 

 terrestrial phsenomena a red colour without any shade of yellow 

 is rarely seen, and a yellow absolutely free from orange rays 

 scarcely ever. A still clearer case of difference of expression 

 occurs in respect to blue ; there can be no reasonable doubt that 

 we have generally called by that name meteors which, had they 

 appeared in China or at Paris, would have been designated bluish 

 or whitish blue. A possible reason for this will presently be given. 

 Another point of apparent dissimilarity in the three lists, is in 

 the much greater proportion of white meteors observed in Eng- 

 land; but this also is susceptible of explanation. The fact is, 

 that in the columns of the Rev. Baden Powell, " white " or 

 " colourless " is always mentioned, while in the Chinese and 

 French lists nothing is said about the colour of a meteor unless 

 it has displayed some peculiar tint. Again, most of the obser- 

 vations which swell the number of white-blue meteors in the 

 French list are described by M. Coulvier Gravier as " white 

 becoming bluish near the horizon," and such would probably 

 be designated merely " white " by the English observers. Were 

 these excluded, the vast proportion of white-blue meteors in the 

 French catalogue would be reduced to a per-centage not very 

 dissimilar from that of the Chinese observations. 



If, instead of the apparent differences, we remark the points 

 of similarity in the three lists, we are at once struck with — 



The small number of green meteors. — There is not a single 

 Chinese observation of this colour. In the French and English 

 observations, green occurs most frequently as a secondary colour 

 which a large meteor exhibits in its course through the lower 

 regions of the atmosphere. In Dr. Buist's records of Indian 

 meteors*, green occurs more frequently in proportion : indeed 

 he says, in writing to Prof. Powell, " The light of the larger 

 meteors is generally orange, bluish, or greenish, hardly ever 

 white t." 



The small number of purple or violet meteors. — When this 

 colour is remarked, it is also generally in meteors that change 

 during their passage. 



The absence of brown, except in one English observation which 

 I have not included in the Table. 



The fact that the large majority of luminous meteors exhibit a 

 distinctive colour. — This I'emark applies apparently to the small 

 shooting-stars as well as to the larger fire-balls. 



for many years medical missionary at Shanghae, that the Chinese express 

 orange by Hwang-tau, i. e. yellow-red. They have a specific word for 

 green, and in general distinguish colours accurately. 



* "Notices of the most remarkable meteors in India, of the fall of which 

 accounts have been published," Bombay Geographical Transactions, 1860. 



t British Association Report, 1849, p. 34. 



