MKTKnus AND METEORITES, 



y years). Mr. Glaisher has stated tho rate 

 of tluir u|>iK':iruiico nt 5 A. M. of tho 13th, at 

 j . T hour ; and ho estimates tho \vholo 

 at Greenwich, from 1 A. M. to 

 tho hour named, at not less than 1,000. 

 nitt Period, 1800. Observations 



:it points in tho United States. 

 :ii,,\vn, l'a., morning of tho llth, 

 from 0" to 2 h 15 m , Mr. B. V. Marsh and Mr. 

 Gummcro observed respectively 129 and 

 rs, :i large proportion in both sets 

 .rm able to the radiant of that period, 

 . At Natick, Mass., Mr. F. W. Kus- 

 .soll aloue saw night of the 10-1 1th, 9 A. M. 

 L M. 395 conformable, and 59 uncon- 

 fonnablo meteors, and something near one- 

 nth of all of which showed trains. 



Spectra of August Meteora. In order to 

 . in tho apparently only possible way, the 

 chemical composition of ordinary shooting-stars, 

 Mr. A. S. Ilerschel had in 1864 invented a 

 " meteor spectroscope," an instrument used 

 somewhat in tho manner of an opera-glass, but 

 tho tubes of -which contain each a prism cut 

 with such angles and so placed, that tho light 

 entering one of its sides shall twice undergo 

 total reflection, and emerge to the eye in lines 

 parallel with its original course. Such a spec- 

 troscope has since been made by Mr. Brown- 

 ing also of England. The instrument, properly 

 held, being turned upon a star or some part of 

 a meteoric train, tho light of such object is dis- 

 persed, and of course analyzed, being at onco 

 lengthened and spread laterally, so as, if the 

 light were compound, to form a fan or brush, 

 or if monochromatic, a line. Tho light so 

 spread is of course enfeebled; so that objects 

 answering to 5th-magnitude stars, or less, dis- 

 appear, and prismatic hues become plainly per- 

 ceptible only at tho 3d magnitude. The in- 

 strument takes in a field large enough, for 

 example, to embrace the whole group of the 

 Pleiades; but in any such space, ordinarily, 

 meteors so rarely appear, that observations re- 

 quire to be made at one of the " periods " the 

 instrument being then best directed beneath 

 tho radiant, and near, but not too near, to it. 



Mr. Herschol, on the night of August 9-10th, 

 secured a view of the spectra of 6 meteors or 

 trains, and on the following night an assistant 

 observing at the same time with the eye of 11 

 others ; and all of these he has figured and de- 

 scribed. Of the twelfth in order, seen at O h 42 m 

 A. M. its nucleus visible H and its train 4 

 seconds the former gave a superb continuous 

 spectrum, showing red, green, and blue; the 

 latter, a spectrum also diffuse, i in width, 

 with a thin, bright orange-yellow line near tho 

 red, and which, during tho last two seconds, 

 alone and distinctly remained in view. 



A yellow line, in fact, like that of sodium, 

 was seen (often along with tho bands proper to 

 other colors, at first) in the light from the 

 larger number of the trains examined. In a 

 less number, tho spectrum was an ordinary one, 

 feeble, and appearing as a diffuse grayish band. 



The spectra of the nuclei were quite commonly 

 lost in those of the train : when separately ob- 

 !, they sometimes appeared like that of 

 the light of incandescent solid matter. Many 

 of tho trains, indeed, at least during the latter 

 part of their visibility, and especially the more 

 conspicuous and slowly-fading ones, appeared 

 to consist of soda-flames ; so that sodium would 

 thus seem to be proved one of the constituents 

 of the meteoric bodies. And tho fact, interest- 

 ing in this connection, that some meteoric stones 

 contain in small quantity compounds of sodium, 

 lends support, so far, to Chladni'e hypothesis of 

 a natural connection between shooting-stars 

 and aerolites. While soda would thus appear 

 to produce the most enduring light of the 

 August meteors, the rays at the same time of 

 some other mineral substance as potassium, 

 sulphur, or phosphorus probably help to form 

 many of the trains, and may in large degree 

 constitute those the light of which presents the 

 diffuse or phosphorescent character. The eye 

 itself detects the yellow color of the August 

 meteoric trains, while that of the November 

 trains is oftener white, bluish, or greenish. 

 (Intell. Observer, October 1866.) 



November Period^ 1866. As already in- 

 timated, a very unusual and brilliant meteoric 

 display was observed, in the early morning of 

 the 14th, over many parts of the eastern hem- 

 isphere. Tolerably complete accounts have 

 appeared of the shower as observed at London ; 

 as also in a paper read by Mr. Jos. Baxendell, 

 before the Manchester Literary and Philosoph- 

 ical Society (Chem. News, December 21, 1866) ; 

 while a paper by Prof. H. A. Newton, in the 

 Amer. Jour, of Science for January, 1867, gives 

 accounts of observations made on the nights of 

 the expected display, and chiefly within the 

 United States, with some remarks as to the 

 theory of the meteoroidal ring, and the limits 

 of visibility of the actually occurring shower. 



The observations of Mr. G. J. Symons, Mr. 

 Baxendell, and others, show the maximum of 

 the shower to have occurred at very nearly 1* 

 12 m , Greenwich time, and its denser part to 

 have been included within at most a period of 

 1" 30 m , its beginning being placed at 0" 45, or 

 at the earliest 0* 30 m , and its termination at 

 about 2", of the 14th. At 0" 30 m of that morn- 

 ing (12" 80 m of the 13th, in astronomical reck- 

 oning), the sun was vertical in E. long. 168 

 80', S. lat. 18 15'. Allowing, of course, 90 of 

 day west of the meridian named, and 10 for 

 twilight, " a line crossing the equator in E. long. 

 68^ and running N. 18J E. separated daylight 

 from darkness and formed the eastern limit be- 

 yond which the shower was not probably vis- 

 ible. The radiant was vertical at 2 h A. M. (which 

 may be taken for the end of the shower) in N. 

 lat. 23$ E., long. 65;" so that the wt 

 limit of visibility a great circle having the 

 point named as its polo would pass through 

 Newfoundland, and thence over the Atlantic; 

 and to regions west of this line tho radiant at 

 the time of the main shower was below the 



