50 COSMOS. 



sucb might be the case. If we regard falling stars and 

 meteoric stones as planetary asteroids, we may be allowed 

 to conjecture that in the streams of the so-called November 

 phenomena,* 3 when, as in 1799, 1833 and 1834, myriads of 

 falling stars traversed the vault of heaven, and northern lights 

 were simultaneously observed, our atmosphere may have re- 

 ceived from the regions of space some elements foreign to'il, 

 which were capable of exciting electro-magnetic processes. 



qui ex sole et stellis fixis et caudis cometarum oriuntur, inci- 

 derepossunt in atmosphseras planetarum. ....." 



* Cosmos, vol. i. pp. 112, 124. 



