34] ON THE ORBIT OF THE NOVEMBER METEORS. 273 



In order to attain a sufficient degree of approximation it is requisite 

 to break up the orbit of the meteors into a considerable number of portions, 

 for each of which the attractions of the elliptic rings corresponding to the 

 several disturbing planets have to be determined ; hence the calculations are 

 necessarily very long, although I have devised a modification of Gauss's 

 formulae which greatly facilitates their application to the present problem. 

 In these numerical calculations I have been greatly aided by my assistants, 

 more especially by Mr Graham. I am now engaged in obtaining a closer 

 approximation by subdividing certain parts of the orbit of the meteors into 

 still smaller portions, but the results which have been given above cannot 

 be materially changed. 



Since I entered upon the foregoing investigation other astronomers have 

 been led, on totally independent grounds, to conclusions which strongly 

 confirm, and are confirmed by, those at which I have myself arrived. 



In the Bullettino Meteorologico dell' Osservatorio del Collegia Romano, 

 Vol. v. Nos. 8, 10, 11, 12, are published four letters from Sig. Schiaparelli, 

 Director of the Observatory of Milan, "Intorno al corso ed all' origine pro- 

 labile delle Stelle Meteoriche." In these letters the author arrives at the 

 conclusion that the orbits which the Meteors describe about the Sun are 

 very elongated, like those of comets, and that probably both these classes 

 of bodies originally come into our system from very distant regions of space. 

 In his last letter, dated 31st Dec. 1866, Sig. Schiaparelli shews that if the 

 August Meteors be supposed to describe a parabola, or a very elongated 

 ellipse, the elements of their orbit calculated from the observed position 

 of their radiant point, agree very closely with those of the orbit of Comet 

 II. 1862, calculated by Dr Oppolzer. The following table exhibits this 

 agreement : 



August Meteors. Comet II. 1862. 



Perihelion distance 0'9643 0'9626 



Inclination 64 3' 66 25' 



Longitude of Perihelion 343 28 344 41 



Longitude of Node 138 16 137 27 



Direction of Motion ... Retrograde Retrograde 



Hence it appears probable that the great Comet of 1862 is a part of the 

 same current of matter as that to which the August Meteors belong. 



In the letter which has just been referred to, Sig. Schiaparelli likewise 

 gives approximate elements of the orbit of the November Meteors, calculated 

 on the supposition that the period is 33 '25 years; but as the calculations 



A. 35 



