November 25, 1897] 



NATURE 



83 



appeared at 5.25 a.m., being brighter than the moon. 

 Unfortunately the sky was overcast at the great majority 

 of places at the time when the maximum occurred, and 

 very few reports have come to hand, but they furnish 

 unquestionable evidence as to a plentiful fall of mjeteors 

 in the few hours preceding sunrise on the 1 5th. 



Before midnight on the 13th, and during the early 

 morning hours of the 14th, meteors were comparatively 

 rare, and may be said to have been more conspicuous by 

 their absence than by their presence. The shower of 

 Leonids was of an extremely meagre character, and such 

 as might occur in an ordinary year with the parent 

 comet near its aphelion. But, apart from the disappoint- 

 ing meteors, the night of the 13th was one of singular 

 beauty. At Bristol the sky partly cleared at 11.30 p.m., 

 and the atmosphere became remarkably transparent. 

 The moon and stars shone very brightly, and films of 

 white cloud, floating rapidly across the sky, gave it a 

 very picturesque appearance. 



From the observations reported it may be well to 

 make a few extracts : — 



Mr. S. H. R. Salmon^ South Croydon. — Sky perfectly 

 clear November 13, I4h. to i6h. About seven meteors 

 seen, including four bright ones as under : 



h. m. s. 



15 3 45 First mag. from Andromeda. 



15 28 o First mag. Leonid. 



*5 32 45 First mag. Not a Leonid. 



^5 53 o = Sirius. Probably a Leonid. It fell in a 



curved path slightly south of Jupiter, and 



was a beautiful object. 



Rev. S. J. Johnson., Bridport. — Tolerably clear on 

 November 13, between I5h. and i5h. 30m., but not a 

 single meteor was observed. 



Miss Brown., Cirencester. — The sky was perfectly clear 

 on November 13, iih. 45m. to i3h. 15m., and the eastern 

 sky was watched from a window facing that quarter, but 

 no meteors were seen. 



Mr. W. H. Milli^an, Belfast. — Cloudy weather pre- 

 vented observation except on one night, November 13, 

 iih. to I2h. 30m., when only one sporadic meteor was 

 recorded ; no Leonids. 



D. W. Walton, Kingston-on-Tha7nes. — Sky clear and 

 moon bright on November 13, loh. 30m. to iih. 30m., 

 but only one meteor appeared. Partly overcast after- 

 wardSj but a few faint meteors were noticed in breaks 

 between the clouds. 



Bristol. — The writer watched the sky on November 13, 

 between about iih. 30m. and I3h., but no Leonids were 

 recorded. The sky clouded after I4h., and the follow- 

 ing night was overcast throughout. Mr. Corder, at 

 Bridgwater, reports that the nights following November 



13 and 14 were too cloudy to permit of observation. 



W. Trueman Tucker, Loughborough. — On November 



14 the clouds cleared away between i6h. and i6h. 30m., 

 but the moon was very bright, and must have ex- 

 tinguished many of the smaller meteors. Between 

 i6h. 30m. and i8h. a considerable number of shooting 

 stars were observed, but no exact count was kept. The 

 lines and approximate paths of ten of the more con- 

 spicuous ones were noted, and the brightest of all 

 appeared in Cepheus at I7h. 25m. It was sufficiently 

 luminous to cast distinct shadows in spite of the moon- 

 light. Very brilliant meteors also fell at i7h. lom., 

 ijh. 15m., i7h. 35m. and lyh. 40m. 



The Dumfries and Galloway Standard of November 17 

 reports that the nights of November 12 and 13 were 

 overcast. On November 14, soon after midnight, the 

 clouds began to roll off, and the sky afterwards became 

 very clear. An amateur observer began watching at 

 I2h. 30m., and from that time until i6h. 15m. he noted 

 in all only thirty-three meteors, not more than thirteen 

 or fourteen being Leonids. He then, thinking the out- 

 look not sufficiently promising for any striking develop- 



NO. 1465, VOL. 57] 



ment of the shower, folded up his note book and star 

 charts and retired. Shortly afterwards, however, the 

 Leonids increased rapidly both in numbers and brilliancy. 

 At about i6h. 50m.' V a couple of young bakers going 

 along the Whitesands to their work, were startled by 

 many meteors throwing their fiery lances athwart the 

 sky. They estimate the numbers as not fewer than ten 

 shooting stars to the minute, and state they never saw 

 so many before in all their lives." 



The latter description is probably exaggerated, but it 

 seems to convey an expression of fact such as we should 

 expect from persons not acquainted with, but surprised 

 by, an unusual celestial event. Though the rough 

 estimate given as to the number of meteors visible may 

 far exceed the actual figures, there is no doubt from the 

 corroborative testimony afforded by Mr. Tucker at 

 Loughborough, quoted in a previous paragraph, that the 

 Leonid shower displayed quite a special activity on the 

 morning of November 15. That it was apparently 

 observed by few persons is unfortunate, but no other 

 result could be expected in view of the cloud-laden atmo- 

 sphere which prevailed, generally, at the time. It is to- 

 be hoped that more favourable conditions obtained at 

 foreign stations, and that successful observations were 

 secured. The shower seems to have presented itself 

 somewhat later than the time expected, both in 1896 and 

 1897. W. F. Denning. 



M. FORSTER HEDDLE, M.D. 



EARLY on the morning of November 19 there passed 

 away at St. .Andrews the foremost mineralogist of 

 Scotland, and one of the most distinguished in the 

 United Kingdom. 



Matthew Forster Heddle was the younger son of 

 Robert Heddle, Esq., of Melsettar, in Orkney, and was 

 born in 1828. In 1844 he went to the University of 

 Edinburgh, where he studied medicine and attended the 

 classes of Gregory and Jameson. Even at this time his 

 tastes lay in the direction of science ; and on the com- 

 pletion of his medical studies he proceeded to Germany, 

 where he devoted himself to chemistry and mineralogy, 

 at first in Clausthal and afterwards under the illustrious 

 Breithaupt at Freiburg. Returning to Edinburgh, he 

 took his degree as Doctor of Medicine in 185 1, his 

 graduation thesis being a treatise " On the Ores of the 

 Metals." 



He practised for a short time in Edinburgh, but never 

 found this occupation a congenial one, devoting by 

 degrees all his time to analysis and other scientific work. 

 In 1856 he organised an expedition to the Faroe Islands. 

 Five months of the summer of that year were spent in a 

 mineralogical survey of the group, resulting in large 

 additions to his cabinet, and putting on a firm foundation 

 his knowledge of the mode of occurrence of the zeolites 

 of the tertiary volcanoes. 



On Dr. Heddle's return from this expedition he was 

 appointed assistant to Prof. Connell at the University 

 of St. Andrews, and on Connell's death, in 1862, he suc- 

 ceeded him as Professor of Chemistry, occupying this 

 chair for twenty-two years. He threw himself with 

 characteristic energy into his work at the University, 

 spending a very considerable part of his salary in the 

 purchase and fitting up of the apparatus for his experi- 

 ments. 



He found time, however, during these years for 

 much mineralogical work, in the course of which he 

 again and again traversed the whole North of Scotland 

 and the Western Islands, thus acquiring an unrivalled 

 acquaintance with its rocks and minerals. The results of 

 these explorations were embodied in a series of papers 

 read principally before the Royal Society of Edinburgh, 

 of which he was, in 1878, elected a Fellow, and the 

 Mineralogical Society, of which he was one of the 



