A RECENT STAR SHOWER. IQI 



There can be no possibility, then, that the shower of 

 last November was in any way connected with the 

 Leonides. 



But another question will at once suggest itself. 

 Astronomers have lately been in the habit of predicting 

 star-showers, and on the whole not without success. 

 How was it that the late shower had not been in any 

 way announced ? 



To this it must be replied in the first place that 

 meteoric astronomy is a science of quite recent birth. 

 A very few years ago astronomers were far from feeling 

 assured that meteors are astronomical phenomena at 

 all. Very few facts were known which could enable 

 astronomers to make predictions even respecting one 

 or two of the more remarkable meteor systems ; while 

 it was clearly recognised that a far greater number 

 were unclassified. These meteors sporadic, as 

 Humboldt called them might belong to systems 

 capable of giving rise on occasion to great meteoric 

 displays, precisely as the Leonides for a score of years 

 in succession may show only a few stragglers, and then 

 during several years produce remarkable showers. But 

 astronomers could only recognise the possibility of 

 such displays in the case of nearly all those meteor 

 streams which were known only by their stragglers. 

 In the great majority of instances there is absolutely 



of missiles thrown at a rider in a circus from the front seat in the 

 lower tier of boxes so as to strike him in the face, while the shower of 

 last November may be compared to a shower thrown from a back seat 

 of a higher tier so as to strike him from above and from the outside, 

 but also slightly from the rear. 



