162 On the Meteors of 13th November, 1833. 



have disturbed it vastly more. Their own momentum, it must be 

 recollected, could be lost only as it was imparled to the air; and the 

 fact that the agitations of the atmosphere were, comparatively, so 

 slight, is a striking proof that the quantity of matter contained in the 

 meteors was exceedingly small. 



(3.) They were transparent bodies; otherwise, we cannot con- 

 ceive how they could have existed together in their original state 

 without being visible by reflected light. The body, or source, from 

 which they emanated, must have had a great extent. If we con- 

 template it under the idea of a ; cloud,' and the phenomenon itself 



as a ' shower, 5 then, after accounting in part for the great area which 

 the shower covered by a supposed progressive motion of the cloud, 

 still it must itself have extended over a great space. (See p. 142.) 

 Now a body only 20 miles in diameter, at the distance of 2238 miles, 

 would appear as large as the moon ; and one 200 miles in diameter, 

 would appear ten times as large as the moon. Such a body, if 

 opake, and constituted like the planets, ought to be visible like them 

 by reflected light ; nor can we imagine a body of such dimensions, 

 under such circumstances, which would not be visible, unless formed 

 of highly transparent materials. 



If we were permitted to class unknown things with unknown, we 

 should say, that the cloud which produced the fiery shower, consisted 

 of nebulous matter, analogous to that which composes the tails of 

 comets. We do not know, indeed, precisely what is the constitution 

 of the material of which the latter are composed ; but we know that 

 it is very light, since it exerts no appreciable force of attraction on 

 the planets, moving even among the satellites of Jupiter without dis- 

 turbing their motions, although its own motions, in such cases, are 

 greatly disturbed, thus proving its materiality ; and we know that it 

 is exceedingly transparent, since the smallest stars are visible through 

 it. Indeed, Sir John Herschel was able to see stars through the 

 densest part of the small comet (Biela's) which visited our planet last 

 year. Hence, so far as we can gather any knowledge of the mate- 

 rial of the nebulous matter of comets, and of that composing the me- 

 teors of Nov. 13th, they appear to be analogous to each other.* 



* In farther elucidation of this point, the reader is requested to consult the recent 

 Treatise on Astronomy by Sir J. Herschel, Chap. X, or a well written article on 

 Comets, from the Companion to the British Almanac, inserted in the American Al- 

 manac for. 1834. 





