332 On the Meteors of 13th November, 1S33. 



the course of the meteors, at 5 o'clock, would have lain far N. of 

 W. and the radiant would have wheeled round rapidly towards the 

 south, as morning approached. For Capt. Parker's observation see 



I 



his statement (p. 399 vol. xxv) of which more will be said hereafter. 

 From the above mentioned sources of information, and upon such 

 authorities the table above was constructed ; each computation being 

 made upon its own independent data, without the slightest effort at ac- 

 commodation; and, where there is supposed to bean uncertainty 

 amounting to several degrees in any result, that uncertainty is indicated 

 by the double sign t attached to that particular result. Although it is 

 reasonable to suppose that the correspondence of the results derived 

 from the less definite observations with those results which are best 

 settled may be in part accidental, yet, by comparing the second and 



' 



i 



third columns of the table it will be strikingly evident, not only that 

 there is a progressive increase of north declination in southern lati- 

 ,tudes, but that the differences of declination compared with the dif- 

 ferences of latitude are strikingly correspondent. To exhibit this 

 ^correspondence (whatever be its cause) the third column was calcu- 

 lated, by dividing the interval between each successive declination and 

 the declination at the head of the column by the corresponding dif- 

 ference between each successive latitude and the latitude at the head 

 of the column. Considering that the table includes every observation 

 that is known, and that is sufficiently definite to afford data for a spe- 

 cific location and that the observations were necessarily loose in their 

 nature, being made by the eye alone, — the degree of proportionality 

 which the fourth column exhibits must go far to satisfy the mind, that 

 there was, in fact, a more northern declination in the more southern 

 latitudes. 



This change of declination is in the proper direction to be the 

 effect of parallax, and might be made the basis ior calculation res- 

 pecting the distance of some imagined body or place from which the 

 meteors took their departure, were it not that the supposition of a 

 parallax in declination is totally annulled by the entire absence of a 

 corresponding parallax in right ascension. This absence is so stri- 

 king, as one may see by reference to the table, that the right ascen- 



of 

 longitude apart in the latitude of 40°, and more than five hundred 

 miles asunder in absolute distance — was the same at the same 

 moment of absolute time, — the same, for example, at 5 o'clock of 



Wonhineton time, and 5h. 40m. of New Haven time. Also bv cora- 



sion at New Haven and at Worthing 





