NOTES TO PRECEDING SECTION. 



115 



JaaBd ces corps sont recontrts par notre atmosphere, la 40 ; Meincke, Annal. Alex. 1843, p. 85.) We have there- 

 iffiference entre leur vitesse et cells de noire plaiiote est fore m this instance iinxni amrnals instead of moon stones, 

 ussez grande pour que le frotteraent qu'ils 6prouvent contre ^ According to Wickh's acute remark, the old myth of th« 

 i'air, les ^chauffe au point de les rendre incatidescents, et , Ncni*an Imn of the moon has an astronomifai origin, and it 

 quelquefois de les faire 6clater. Si le groups des «itoiles i connected symbolically in chronology with the intercalary 

 hlantes forme un anneau continu autourdu soleil, sa vitesse j cycles of the lunar year, the worship of the moon at Ne- 

 de circulation pourra 4tre tres-diflferente de celle de la msa, and the games there celebrated. 

 terre; et sesd^placementsdans le ciel, par suite des actions j «) (p. 43.)_'rhe following important passage, one of th« 



flan^taires, pourrons encore rendre possible ou impossible, | many inspirations of Kepler on the nuliatiou of heat by the 

 diffferentes 6poques, le phenomeue de la rencontre dans j fixed stars, slow combustum and the vital proressejs, occur* 

 le plau de r6cliptique."— Poissou, Recherches sur la proba- in the Paraiipom. in Vitell. Asiron. pars optica, 1604, 

 bilit6 des jugemeuts, p. 306, 307. j Propos. xxxii. p. 25: " Lucis propriuiu est calor, sydera 



<9 (p. 41.)— Humboldt, Essai politique sur la Nouv. Es- omnia calefaciunt. De syderum luce ciantatis ratio testa- 

 pagne, 2e 6dit.) t. iii. p. 310. j tur, calorem universorum in niinori esse proportione ad 



60 (p. 41.)— Pliny shows himself to have been attentive . calorem unius solis, quam ut ab homine, cujus est certa 

 to the colour of the crust : colore adusto. The words, lat- j caloris mensura, uterque simul percipi et judicari possit. 

 tribus p/uisse, also refer to the burned external appearance ' De cincindularum lucula tenuissima negare non pote8,quin 



of Aerolites (ii. 56 and 58). 



51 (p. 42,)— Humboldt, Rel. hist. t. ii. chap. xi. p. 299— 

 302. 



5;J (p, 42.)— Gustav Rose, Reise nach dem Ural, Bd. ii 

 S. 202. 



63 (p. 42.)— Fide Poggend. Ann. 1825, Bd. iv. S. 173— 

 192. Rammelsberg, Erstes Suppl. zum chem. Handworter- 

 buche der Mineralogie, 1843, s. 102. " It is," says the acute 



cum calore sit. Vivunt enim et moventur, h()C autem non 

 sine calefactione perficitur. Sed neque putrescentiura lig- 

 nonim lux suo calore destituitur; nam ipsa puetredo qui- 

 dam lent us ignis est. Inest et slirpibus suus calor." Vidt 

 Kepler, Epit. Astron. Copernicanae. 1618, t. i. lib. i. p. 35. 

 <ji (p. 44.) — " There is another thing, which I recom- 

 mend to the observation of mathematical men : which is, 

 that in Februarv, and for a little before, and a little after 



Olbers, " a remarkable though unnoticed fact, that fossil j that month (as I have observed several years together), 

 meteoric stones have lieen found, like fossil shells, in sec- i about six in the evening, when theTwihght had almost de- 

 ondary and tertiary formations. Shall we thence feel at i serted the horizon, you shall see a plainly discernible way 



liberty to conclude, that before the last and present ar- 

 rangement of the surface of our earth, meteoric stones had 

 fallen upon it? Schreibers calculates that at this time 

 there are about 700 falls of meteoric stones in each year." 

 (Olbers, in Schum. Jahrb. 1838, s. 329.) Problematic 

 nickeliferous masses of native iron have l)een lately found 

 in North Asia, (Goldseiferwerk von Petropawlowsk, 20 

 miles south-east of Kusnezk,) at i^ distance of 31 feet deep, 

 and in the Western Carpathians (Magura, near Szlanicz). 

 Both of these masses are extremely like Aerolites — Vide 

 Erman, Archiv fiir wissenschaftliche Kunde von Russland, 



of the Twilight striking^ up towards the Pleiades, and 

 seeming almost to toucli them. It is so observed any clear 

 night, but it is best iHic nocte. There is no such way to b« 

 observed at any other time of the year (that I can perceive), 

 nor any other way at that time to be perceived darting up 

 elsewhere. And 1 believe it hath been, and will be con- 

 stantly visiWe at that time of the year. But what the 

 cause of it in nature should be, I cannot yet imagine, but 

 leave it to further inquiry." — Childrey, Britannia Baconica, 

 IfiGI, p. 183. This is the first and simple account of the 

 phenomenon, Cassini, D6couverte de la iumiere celeste qui 



Bd. i. S. 315, and Haidinger'S Bericht iiber die Szlauiczer paroh dans le zodiaque, in the Mem. de I'Acad. t. viii. 1730, 

 Schiirfe in Ungaru. ; p. 2r6. Mairan, Trait6 phys. de I'Aurore boreale, 1754, p. 



54 (p. 42.) — Berzclius, Jahresber. Bd. xv. S. 217 and . 16. In the curious book of Childrey, quoted above, there 

 231 ; Rammelsberg, Handworterb. Abth. ii. S. 25—28. ! are very rational views of the epochs of the occurrence of 



55 (p. 42.) — "Sir Isaac said, he took all the planets to the maxima and minima in the distribution of the annual 



be composed of the same matter with this earth, viz., earth, 

 water, and stones, but variously concocted." — Turner, Col- 

 lections for the Hist, of Grantham, cont. authentic Memoirs 

 of Sir Isaac Newton, p. 172, 



56 (p. 43.)— Adolph Erman, in Poggend. Ann. 1839, Bd. 

 xlviii. S. 582—601. Biot at a previous perio</, (Comptes 



heat, as well as on the course of the daily temperature ; 

 and on the retardation of the extreme effects in meteorolo- 

 gical processes. Unfortunately the Baconian philosophi- 

 sing Chaplain to Lord Henry Somerset, like Bernardm de 

 St. Pierre, teaches that the earth is pointed at the poles. 

 Originally he says it was globular, but the ceaseless accu- 



rendus, 1836, t, ii. p. 670) raised doubts of tAe probability mulation of ice at the poles altered the figure of the body 

 of the November phenomenon appearing ag?i a in the begin- of the earth ; and as ice is formed from water, so does the 

 ning of May. MSdler has taken the me^n temperature of | quantity of water go ou decreasing everywhere else, 

 the three days of May that have been iecried for the last | 62 (p" 44,)— Dominic Cassini (Mem. de I'Acad. t. viii. 

 86 years, according to Berlin observ3<:ioiis, (Verhandl. des ■ 1730, p. 188), and Mairan (Aurore bor. p. 16) even main- 

 Vcreius zur Befiird. des Gartenbaue* 1834, s. 377,) and finds ; tained that the phenomenon seen in Persia, in 1668, wa« 

 the temperature of the llth, 12th. and 13th of May to i-e- j the zodiacal light. Delambre (Hist, de I'Astronomie mo- 

 cede 10-22 C. precisely at a seison when the advance in derne,t. ii. p. 742) ascribes the discovery of this light defin- 

 the temperature is the most rxpid. It would be very desi- itively to the traveller Chardin ; but both in his Couronne- 



rable that this phenomena (/ a fall of temperature, which 

 there has been an obvious disposition to ascribe to the fu- 

 sion of masses of ice in fAe north-east of Europe, were in- 

 vestigated at very diffei^ut points of the continent of Amer- 

 ica, or ill the southeKi hemisphere. Vide Bull, de I'Acad. 

 Imp. de St.-PeterslxJurg 1843, t. i. No. 4. 

 57 (p. 43.) — Plvc. Vitae par. in Lysandro, cap, 22. The 



ment de Soliman and in many passages of his travels (ed. 

 de Langles, t. iv. p. 326 ; t. x. p. 97) Chardin refers the 

 Persian niazouk (nyzek), ou petite lance, only to " la grande 

 et fameuse com^te qui parut presque par toute la terre en 

 1668, et dont la t^te eloit cach<ie dans Toccident, de sorte 

 qu'on ne pouvoiten rien aperce voir sur 1 'horizon d'Ispahau." 

 (Atlas du Voyage de Chardin, tab. iv.), from observations 



account of Damdchos (Daimachos), according to which a at Schiraz. But the head or nucleus of this comet 

 fiery cloud wa> seen for 70 days in succession, and which seen in Brazil and in India (Pingr6, Comelographie, t. ii. 

 emitted sparis like falling stars, and finally sinking down, p. 22). On the conjectured identity of the last great comet 

 deposited tbe stone of .^gos Potamos, "which was but an of 1843 with that which Cassini mistook for the zodiacal 

 insignificant portion of the cloud," is extremely improbable, light, see Schum. Astron. Nachr. 1843, No. 476 and 480. 

 because the course and direction of the fire-ball niust then In the Persian, the words nizehi ateschin (fiery spears or 

 have coatinued for many days like that of the earth. The lances) are also used for the beams of the rising or setting 

 fire-b»(l of the 19th of July, 1686, described by Ilalley, per- : sun; nayizik, in Freytag's Arabic Lexicon, is interpreted 



stelliE cadentes. The compariscm of comets with lances and 

 spears was, however, extremely common in all languages 

 in the middle ages. Even the great comet which was seen 

 from April to June, 1500, ig always spoken of by Italian 

 writers of the time under the title of " il Signor Astone 

 (vide my Exam. crit. de I'Hist. de la Ge(»graphie, t. v. p. 

 80). The statement variously made that Descartes (Cassi- 

 ni, p. 230, Mairan, p. 16) and Kepler (Delambre, t..i.p. 

 601) were acquainted with the zodiacal light appears to me 

 altogether untenable. Descartes (Principes, iii. art. 136, 

 137) speaks in a very obscure manner of the production of 

 comets' tails : " Par des rayons oWiques qui, tombant sur 

 diverses parties des orbes planetaires, viennent des parties 

 lat6rales 4 notre oeil par une refraction extraordinaire ;" 



formed its visible cour.se in minutes (Phih)S. Trans, vol. 

 xxix. p. 163). Whether Daimachos, the writer, irefl ev- 

 acSeim, is the same with the Daimachos of Plataea, who 

 was sent by Seleucus to India to the son of Androkottos. and 

 whom Strabo (p. 70, Casaub.) characterizes as a "vender 

 of lies," remains uncertain. From another passage of Plu- 

 tarch (Compar. Solonis c. Pop. cap. 4)^ we should almost 

 be disposed to believe that he was. Vide Note 32. 



58 (p.43.)— Stob. ed. Heeren, i. 25, p. 508, Plut. de plac. 

 Philos. ii. 13. 



59 (p. 43.) — The remarkable passage of Plutarch (De 

 plac. Philos. ii. 13) is the following : " Anaxagoras teaches 

 that the surrounding ether is fiery in respect of its sub- 

 stance ; and through the force of its circumvolution tears 



away masses of rock from the earth, sets them on fire, and also how comets' tails can be seen morning and evening, 

 turns them into stars." The Clazomena?an employs the , "comme une longue poutre,"if the sun be placed between 

 same kind of force (centrifugal force) for bringing the Ne- the comet and the earth. This passage refers to the zodi- 

 maean lion from the moon to the Peloponnesus. (Aelian acal light as little as the one in Kepler, in which he speaks 

 xii. 7 ; Plut. de facie in orbe lunae, c. 24 ; Schol. ex. Cod. of the existence of an atmosphere about the sun (limbus 

 Paris, iu Apoll. Argon, lib. i. p. 498, ed. Schaef. t. it. p. ) circa solem, coma lacida), which in total echpses of the sun 



