408 On the Meteors of 13th November. 
24° 40’. At Worthington, it was very near Gamma Leonis, 2 Iit- 
tle westward of it, having a declination of 21° 30’, and having there- 
fore, when compared with the observations of Dr. Aiken, a parallax 
in declination of 3° 10’. 
The observations of Capt. Parker in the Gulf of Mexico, will 
afford when compared with ours, a still greater parallax. (See. p. 
8. For want of good observations, it will be difficult to form a correct 
estimate of the size of any of the meteors, since a judgment formed 
by the unassisted eye, upon bodies so transient and so brilliant, is 
very liable to be erroneous; but the distance of a fire ball, at the 
time of its disappearance, being determined, some approximate 
knowledge may be gained of its dimensions from the apparent diam- 
eter of its nucleus. According to most observers, these fire balls 
had each a distinct nucleus, the size of which many compare to the 
largest apparent dimensions of Jupiter and Venus, which it exceed- 
ed, and in one or two instances it appeared nearly equal to that of 
the moon. : 
Similar remarks might be made respecting the dimensions of the 
luminous trains. Moreover, on the supposition that these trains, and 
the nebule into which they occasionally resolved themselves, were 
formed of smoke that originated from the combustion of the meteors, 
we are led to infer that the meteors themselves were constituted of 
matter not aeriform, but of a density corresponding to ase of a liquid, 
or perhaps even of a solid body. 
9. It seems difficult to determine whether or not any substance 
was found, that was probably a deposit or residuum from the mete- 
ors. The fact, however, that the supposed deposits were so uni- 
formly described as gelatinous substances, forms a presumption in 
favor of the supposition that they had the origin ascribed to them. 
This quality, it is worthy of remark, was mentioned by observers of 
very different classes, some of whom (as in the instance mentioned 
by Mr. Twining, p. 396) could hardly be supposed to have ever 
heard, that to fire-balls of this description had been assigned such a 
chemical constitution. 
Taking it as established, that such a residuum as has been men- 
tioned, was deposited by the meteors, we may infer, that the matter 
of which the meteors were composed was both highly volatile and 
transparent,—dqualities that are apt to be united in very inflamma- 
ble substances. We know of hardly any thing else, except bodies 
