XXV111 NOTES. 



metallic substances, which, according to Fusinieri, exist in the upper strata of 

 the atmosphere, and which suddenly aggregate from a state of extreme disper- 

 sion, and on the mutual penetration and mixture of gases, see my llelat. 

 Hist. T. i. p. 525. 



(7) p. 114. Bessel, in Schum. Astr. Nachr. 1839, Nr. 380 and 381, 

 S. 222 and 316. At the conclusion of the memoir, there is a comparison of 

 the longitudes of the sun with the epochs of the November phenomenon, 

 since the date of the first observation at Cumana in 1799. 



( 71 ) p. 114. Dr. Thomas Forster mentions, in his Pocket Encyclopedia 

 of Natural Phenomena, 1827, p. 17, 1hat there is preserved at Christ's 

 College, Cambridge, a manuscript supposed to have been written by a monk, 

 and entitled, " Ephemendes Rernm Naturalium," in which the natural pha> 

 nomeua proper to each day of the year are indicated ; such as the iirst blos- 

 soming of plants, arrival of birds, &c. The 10th of August is marked by the 

 word meteorodts. It was this indication, combined with the tradition of the 

 fiery tears ol St. Lawrence, which were the immediate occasion of Dr. Forster's 

 zealous inquiry into the August phenomenon. (Quetelet, Corresp. Mathe- 

 Wian^v.c, btrie ui. T. i. 1837, p. 433). 



( ;; ) p. 115. Hnmboldt, Rel. Hist. T. i. pp. 519527- Ellicot, in the 

 Transactions of the American Soc. 1804, Vol. vi. p. 29. Arago says of the 

 November phenomenon, "Aiusi se confirme de plus en plus 1'existencc 

 d'une zone compo&ee de millions de petits corps dont les orbites rencontreut 

 le plan de I'ecliptique, vtrs le point que la terre va occuper tons les ans, du 11 

 au 13 Novembre. C'cst un noavcau monde planetaire, qni commence a se 

 reveler a nous." (Anuuaire, 1836, p. 296.) 



P) p. 115. Compare Muschcubroek, Introd. ad Phil. Nat. 1762, T. il 

 p. 1061. Howard, Climate of London, Vol. ii. p. 23 ; observations of 1806 ; 

 seven years, therefore, after the earliest observations of Brandes, in Beuzen- 

 berg iiber Steruschnuppen, S. 240 244. August Observations of Thomas 

 Forster, in Quetelet's Corr. Math. pp. 438453. Observations by Adolph 

 Ermau, Boguslawski and Kreil, in Schumacher's Jahrbuch, 1838, pp. 

 317 330. Respecting the point of origin in Perseus on the 10th of August, 

 1839, see the exact measurements of Bessel and Erman (Schum. Astr. Nachr. 

 Nr. 385 und 428) ; but on the 10th of August, 1837, the path does not 

 appear to have been retrograde. See Arago, in- the Comptes-rendus, 1837 f 

 T. ii. p. 183. 



(7 4 ) p. 115. On the 25th of April, 1095, "innumerable eyes saw in 

 France the stars fall from heaven as thick as hail" (ut grando, nisi lucereut, 



