SHOOTING STARS. 575 



The divergence from Perseus has consequently shown itself 

 in both periods as a very remarkable result. An acute ob- 

 server, Julius Schmidt, attached to the Observatory at Bonn, 

 who, has been occupied with meteoric phenomena for eight or 

 ten years, expresses himself upon this subject with great 

 decision in a letter to me (July, 1851) ; " If I deduct from 

 the abundant falls of shooting stars in November, 1833, and 

 1834, as well as from subsequent ones, that kind in which the 

 point in Leo sent out whole swarms of meteors, I am at present 

 inclined to consider the Perseus point as that point of diver- 

 gence which presents not only in August, but throughout the 

 whole year, the most meteors. This point is situated, accord- 

 ing to the result deduced from 478 observations by Heis, in 

 Rt. Asc. 50-3 and Decl. 51'5 (holding good for 1844-6). In 

 November, 1849 (from the 7th to the 14th), I saw some 

 hundreds more shooting stars than I have ever remarked 

 since 1 84 1 . Of these only a few upon the whole came from 

 Leo ; by far the greater number belonged to the constellation 

 of Perseus. It follows from this, as it appears to me, that the 

 great November phenomenon of 1799 and 1 833 did not appear 

 at that time (1841). Olbers also believes that the maximum 

 November appearance has a period of thirty-four years 

 (Cosmos, vol. i. p. 115). If the directions of the meteor-paths 

 are considered in their full complication and periodical recur- 

 rence, it is found that there are certain points of divergence 



the night of the i-f of November, on the occasion of a fall but 

 little less abundant, only four paths proceeded from Leo, 

 Olbers (Schum. Astr. NacJir, no. 372) adds very significantly: 

 On this night paths did not appear at all parallel to each 

 other, and showed no relation to Leo : they appear, on account 

 of the want of parallelism, to belong to the sporadic and the 

 periodic class of falling stars. The proper November period 

 was, however, certainly not to be compared in brilliancy with 

 those of the years 179J, 1832, and 1833*'* 



