On the Meteors of the 13th November, 1833. 173 



but not having had leisure to examine all the facts recorded of 

 that phenomenon, I would not venture to assert, positively, that this 

 is the true explanation of that mystery. The explanation of the cause 

 of the meteors of November 13th, may include that of the Zodiacal 

 light, although it is not responsible for it. In March, the appearance 

 becomes identified with that of the Zodiacal Light; but in Nov. and 

 Dec. the Zodiacal Light was identified with that ; and it may prove 

 to be a fact that both appearances are dependent on the same cause. 

 Having now, as we suppose, arrived at a knowledge of the cause 

 of the " Meteoric Shower,'\ we may, as in other cases, go back and 

 apply our theory to the correction of inferences made from indepen- 

 dent sources of evidence. In fact, all the conclusions drawn in the 

 former part of this article, as far as to the last head of inquiry, were 

 wholly independent of the theory now developed, and without refer- 

 ence to any hypothesis whatever. Although I had early received 

 the impression, that a nebulous body, or comet, had some connexion 

 with the meteors, and intimated such an idea to the Connecticut Acad- 

 emy, at their session on the 24th Dec, yet I had formed no consist- 

 ent views of the nature of this connexion, until nearly the whole of the 

 preceding article was in print. Having come to the conclusion that 

 the material of which the meteors were composed, was analogous to 

 that which forms the tails of comets, I began to reflect on the connex- 

 ion which such a body might have with the phenomenon observed, 

 and was led successively to the several conclusions now submitted, 

 nearly in the order in which they are here presented. Nothing but a 

 strong conviction of their truth, would induce me to offer them to 

 the public in so imperfect a state. The candid reader will appre- 

 ciate the difficulty of maturing points of such intricacy, and establish- 

 ing them by refined and elaborate calculations, while the press is 



waiting. 



On comparing the theory with the propositions previously made 

 out, the agreement appears to be, generally, good. Probably the ori- 

 gin of the meteors, was farther from the earth than the distance as- 

 signed in the second proposition ; but it was necessary to form some 

 estimate of the distance as a starting point, and that result was the 

 best I was able to obtain from data so imperfect and discordant. 

 But should the origin appear to have been at a much greater distance 

 than was there assigned, the subsequent conclusions, built upon the 

 supposition that the meteors fell towards the earth from a great dis- 

 tance, will be true for a stronger reason. 



