380 Mr. J. N. Lockyer. [Feb. 28, 



Observations, &c. 



U.S. Geological Survey. Mineral Resources of the United 



States. 1883 and 1884. 8vo. Washington 1885 ; Report of 



the Survey of the Territories. Vols. Ill (Book 1), VIII. 4to. 



Washington 1883, ]884. The Survey. 



U.S. Naval Observatory. Report. 1888. 8vo. Washington. 



The Observatory. 



U.S. Patent Office. Official Gazette. Vol. XLV. Nos. 10-13. 

 Vol. XL VI. Nos. 1-5. 8vo. Washington 1888-89; Alpha- 

 betical List of Patentees, Quarter ending June 30, 1888. 8vo. 

 Washington. The Office. 



U.S. Signal Office. Report 1887. Part 2. 8vo. Washington. 



The Office. 



Photograph of Commandant Defforges's Pendulum Apparatus as 

 mounted in the Safe Room, Royal Observatory, Greenwich. 



The Astronomer Royal. 



February 28, ] 889. 

 Professor G. G. STOKES, D.C.L., President, in the Chair. 



The Presents received were laid on the table, and thanks ordered 

 for them. 



The following Papers were read : 



I. " On the (Spectra of Meteor-swarms (Group III)." By J. 

 NORMAN LOCKYER, F.R.S. Received February 14, 1889. 



I. Introductory. 



Up to the present time the prevailing idea has been that nebulee, 

 stars, and comets represent different orders of bodies in the cosmos, 

 and all classifications have proceeded on the assumption not only that 

 these bodies are variously constituted but that in the case of the 

 " stars " all are becoming cooler. In a paper communicated to the 

 Royal Society in 1865,* Dr. Huggins writes : " My observations, as 

 far as thev extend at present, seem to be in favour of the opinion that 

 the nebulae which give a gaseous spectrum are systems possessing a 

 structure and a purpose in relation to the universe, altogether dis- 



* ' Roy. Soc. Proc.,' yol. 14, p. 39. 



