December 7, 1899] 



NATURE 



^IZ 



Cricklade to Newbury ; to the east of that road where it 

 traverses Wanborough (a few miles east of Swindon). 



The observers, whose descriptions are given below, 

 were Miss May Jeans, aged eighteen ; Mr. Purcell Jeans, 

 aged sixteen ; and Miss Emily Swayne. 



Miss Jeans' description is as follows : — 



^* November 22. — Last Wednesday afternoon, November 15, 

 as I was lying down in an easy chair, looking out of a window 

 facing north, and was not thinking of seeing the meteors, but 

 suddenly I noticed them. Immediately I called Miss Swayne 

 to come and look and see if she could also see them. We then 

 went out of doors to look at them ; the air seemed full of them, 

 both large and small meteors. There was a thick mist at the 

 time, which cleared off after the shower was over. The element 

 seemed alive with them ; small ones were on the background, 

 and larger ones suddenly appearing and shooting across the 

 sky. The shower lasted about an hour. It was half-past one 

 o'clock when first I noticed them. Just before half-past two, my 

 brother, Purcell Jeans, came in from a walk, and I called him 

 to see them. They were nearly over then. We also called 

 Mrs. Prismall of this village, our washerwoman. They were 

 like silver balls shooting about everywhere, shining brightly, 

 more like a very starlight night ; only the stars, instead of being 

 a gold colour, were silver, and every star shooting in all direc- 

 tions. It is so difficult to describe, as I have never seen any- 

 thing like it before." 



Mr, Purcell Jeans writes : — 



" When I came back from a walk, on Wednesday, about a 

 quarter-past two o'clock, Miss Swayne told me to come and 

 look at the Leonids, which I did. They were nearly over then, 

 but the elements seemed full of them. I went indoors for a few 

 minutes, and when I came out there was nothing more to be 

 seen of them. There was a mist prevailing at the time, which 

 we thought must have been the cause of our being able to see 

 them. I was very much surprised at the sight, as I never thought 

 it possible to see stars in the daylight. They looked like a lot 

 of little silver balls floating about, and apparently falling to the 

 earth." 



Miss Emily Swayne's description of the shower is as 

 follows : — 



"I had just come indoors, on Wednesday last, November 

 15, at half- past one o'clock, and remarked to the washerwoman 

 what a peculiar feeling there was in the air, as if we should 

 have snow, and yet it did not feel cold enough. Almost as I 

 finished speaking Miss Jeans called me. I found her sitting in 

 an armchair quite close to the window. She exclaimed, ' Come 

 and see. I believe I can see stars.' 



" I thought it impossible, and would not believe it, but I 

 looked, and certainly saw what appeared to be stars. We then 

 went out, calling the washerwoman to come with us. 



" I was facing the north. The air seemed filled all round 

 me with little floating silver balls, which apparently fell from 

 the sky, and on looking right up I saw what seemed to be 

 large shooting stars, all starting from one point, some going 

 east and others west ; some leaving longer lines of light behind 

 them than others. I thought it a very wonderful sight, and 

 have never seen anything at all like it before." 



The above descriptions give a fairly good account of 

 a meteor shower seen during the daytime, and it will be 

 interesting to hear if any other people in that neighbour- 

 hood noticed anything on that date. 



The second communication hails from Aveley, in 

 Essex, and the correspondent, Mr. E. Shaw, writes as 

 follows : — 



"We observed what appeared to be the meteor shower 

 yesterday (Wednesday, November 15) afternoon between the 

 hours of three and half-past four, resembling a shower of snow, 

 only they were stars, working in and out and round about. We 

 are not mistaken, for two persons in my house saw them." 



Considering the accounts of these "daylight" observ- 

 ations in conjunction with those made at Paris and 

 Strasbourg, there seems to be a certain amount of con- 

 tinuity between them. 



At both the latter places the shower had every appear- 

 ance, judging by the numbers of meteors observed, of 



NO. I 57 I, VOL. 61] 



increasing in intensity as the morning of the Wednesday 

 wore on, and there seeoss no reason why the actual 

 maximum should not have occurred about mid-day on the 

 same day, and thus escaped more general notice. At 

 the time of the observations made at Little Hinton, the 

 constellation of Leo was already well below the horizon, 

 so that the shower should also have been seen from some 

 place during the night time. .A.s no news of any such 

 display having been seen has come to hand, these ob- 

 servations therefore receive no corroboration. Miss 

 Swayne's statement that the shooting stars were "all 

 starting from one point, some going east and others 

 west," shows that they could not have been Leonids in 

 any case. The observations are, however, worth record- 

 ing, but that they refer to the Leonids is very much open 

 to doubt. 



The Andromedes. — This swarm of meteors, which 

 follows the Leonids somewhat closely as regards the 

 time of year, seems to have been seen by several 

 observers. 



From America we learn that Prof. Young, at Prince- 

 ton, on the night of November 24., saw forty-two Andro- 

 medes and secured several photographs, but the period 

 of observation is not stated. Mr. E. C. Willis, of Nor- 

 wich, made many observations on the same night, and 

 these are given below : — 



November 24. 



Before loh. no systematic watch was made, but if the 

 meteors had been exceptionally abundant, they would have 

 been noticed. 



iih. 30m.- 1 6h. 45m. Sky entirely overcast. 



i6h. 45m. -I7h. 15m. Slight breaks in the cloud, but no 

 meteors seen. W. J. S. Lockver. 



FERDINAND TIEMANN. 



CHEMISTS will learn with regret of the death of Prof, 

 Ferdinand Tiemann, which occurred at Meran, of 

 heart disease, on November 17. 



Johann Carl Wilhelm Ferdinand Tiemann was bom at 

 Riibeland in 1848. He graduated as Ph.D. at Gottingen 

 in 1870, and afterwards held the post of demonstrator 

 under Hofmann in Berlm, in whose laboratory most of 

 his researches were carried out, frequently in collaboration 

 with students and pupils. In 1882 he was appointed 

 professor of chemistry in the University of Berlin, and 

 in the following year he succeeded Wichelhaus as editor 

 of the Reports of the German Chemical Society, a post 

 which he resigned in 1897. 



Tiemann's best known researches deal with the con- 

 stitution of odoriferous principles. In 1874 he showed 

 that the glucoside coniferin, which occurs in the sap of 

 coniferous trees, could be hydrolysed by emulsin into 

 glucose and coniferylic alcohol, and that the latter com- 

 pound, when oxidised, yielded vanillin, identical with the 

 odoriferous principle of vanilla. A manufactory was es- 

 tablished at Holzininden under the direction of his pupils, 

 Haarmahn and Reimer, both of whom had been associated 

 with him in his researches on vanillin, and the commercial 



