50 COSMOS. 



such might be the case. If we regard falling stars and 

 meteoric stones as planetary asteroids, we may be allowed 

 to conjecture that in the streams of the so-called November 

 phenomena, 43 when, as in 1799, 1833 and 1834, myriads of 

 falling stars traversed the vault of heaven, and northern lights 

 were simultaneously observed, our atmosphere may have re- 

 ceived from the regions of space some elements foreign to it, 

 which were capable of exciting electro-magnetic processes. 



qui ex sole et stellis fixis et caudis cometarum oriuntur, inci- 



dere possunt in atmosphseras planetarum " 



43 Cosmos, vol. i. pp. 112, 124. 



