566 COSMOS. 



V. 



FALLING STARS, FIRE-BALLS, AND METEORIC STONES. 



SINCE the spring of 1845, when I published the Delvne*. 

 tions of Nature, or the general survey of cosmical pheno- 

 mena, the previous results of the observation of aerolites ano' 

 periodic streams of falling stars, have been abundantly ex- 

 tended and corrected. Much has been subjected to a stricter 

 and more careful criticism ; especially the discussion, so 

 important for the whole of this mysterious phenomenon, of 

 the divergence, i. e. the situation, of the point of departure in 

 the recurring epochs of swarms of falling stars. The number 

 of these epochs, also, of which for a long time the August 

 and November periods alone attracted attention, has been 

 increased by recent observations, whose results present a high 

 degree of probability. From the meritorious labours, first of 

 Brandes, Benzenberg, Olbers and Bessel, subsequently of 

 Krman, Boguslawski, Quetelet, Feldt, Saigey, Edward Heis, 

 and Julius Schmidt, corresponding measurements have been 

 commenced; and a more generally diffused mathematical 

 spirit has rendered it more difficult, through self-deception, 

 to make uncertain observations agree with a preconceived 

 theory. 



The progress in the study of fire-meteors would be so 

 much the quicker in proportion as facts are impartially sepa- 

 rated from opinions, and details put to the test; but not 

 everything discarded as being imperfectly observed which 

 cannot yet be explained, It appears to me most important 



