CHAPTER VIII. 



METEORS. 



THERE is no more interesting chapter in the 

 history of astronomy than that relating to 

 meteors. A hundred years ago shooting -stars 

 were not considered to be astronomical phe- 

 nomena. They were supposed to be merely 

 inflammable vapours which caught fire in the 

 upper regions of our atmosphere, although both 

 Halley and the scientist Ernst Chladni (1756- 

 1827) had notions of their celestial origin. For 

 thirty -three years after the beginning of the 

 century, however, nothing was heard of meteoric 

 astronomy, nor was the subject considered as 

 part of the astronomer's labours. 



A great meteoric shower took place on 

 the night of November 12 and morning of 

 November 13, 1833. The shower was probably 

 the grandest ever witnessed, the shooting-stars 

 being literally innumerable. The display was 

 best observed in America, and was attentively 



