clii NOTES. 



berg, of an alteration in the proper motion of Procyon, see Kosmos, Bd. iii. 

 S. 267269 ; Engl. edit. p. 182 and 183. 



( 696 ) p. 424. Compare Kosmos, Bd. iii. S. 42 44, and 54, Anm. 17 ; 

 Engl. edit, p, 3335, and x. Note 63. 



t 687 ) p. 424. The remarkable passage al'luded to in the text (Plutarch, de 

 facie in orbe Lunse, p. 923), closely translated, is as follows : " Yet the 

 Moon is kept from (or helped against) falling, by its own motion, and by the 

 impetuosity of its revolution, as things placed in slings are hindered from 

 falling by being whirled round in a circle." 



s88 ) p. 426. Kosmos, Bd. i. S. 126; Engl. edit. p. 112. 



(689^ p 426. Coulvier-Gravier and Saigey, Recherches sur les Etoiles 

 filantes, 1847, p. 6986. 



(69) p. 426. " Die periodischen Sternschnuppen und die Resultate der Er- 

 scheiuungeu, abgeleitet aus den wahrend der letzten 10 Jahre zu Aachen 

 angestellten Beobachtungen, von Eduard Heis" (On Periodical Shooting 

 Stars, and the Results derived from Observations of these Phenomena, made 

 during the last Ten Years at Aix-la-Chapelle, by Edward Heis), 1849, S. 7 

 and 2630. 



( m ) p. 426. The assignment of the North Pole as a centre of radiation 

 or point of departure of shooting stars in the August period, rests only on the 

 observations of a single year, 1839 (10th of August). A traveller in the 

 East, Dr. Asahel Grant, writes from Mardin, in Mesopotamia, that about 

 midnight the sky was as it were furrowed by shooting stars, which all pro- 

 ceeded from the vicinity of the North Pole (Heis, S. 28, according to a 

 letter from Herrick to Quetelet, and according to Dr. Grant's journals). 



( 692 ) p. 427. This superiority of the point of departure in Perseus over 

 that in Leo in respect to the number of shooting stars, was, however, far 

 from shewing itself in the Bremer observations of the night 13 to 14 Nov. 

 1838. In a very rich fall of shooting stars, a very practised observer, 

 Roswinkel, saw almost all the paths take their departure from the constellation 

 of Leo and the southern part of Ursa Major ; while, on the night of the 12th 

 to the 13th of November, when the number of shooting stars was but little 

 inferior, only four of their paths proceeded from Leo. Olbers (Schurn. Astr. 

 Nachr. No. 372) adds, very significantly : " The paths on this night shewed 

 nothing of parallelism, and no reference to the constellation of Leo ; and, on 

 account of this absence of parallelism, they would appear to belong to the 

 class of sporadic, not to that of periodic, shooting stars. The November 

 phenomenon of this year could not indeed be compared in brilliancy to those 

 of the years 1799, 1832, and 1833." 



