THE NEW SCIENCE OF METEOROLOGY 



an object, in order to acquire such speed in falling 

 merely from the moon, must have been projected with 

 an initial velocity not conceivably to be given by any 

 lunar volcanic impulse. Moreover, there was a growing 

 conviction that there are no active volcanoes on the 

 moon, and other considerations of the same tenor led 

 to the complete abandonment of the selenitic theory. 



But the theory of telluric origin of aerolites was by 

 no means so easily disposed of. This was an epoch 

 when electrical phenomena were exciting unbounded 

 and universal interest, and there was a not unnatural 

 tendency to appeal to electricity in explanation of 

 every obscure phenomenon ; and in this case the seem- 

 ing similarity between a lightning flash and the flash 

 of an aerolite lent color to the explanation. So we 

 find Thomas Forster, a meteorologist of repute, still 

 adhering to the atmospheric theory of formation of 

 aerolites in his book published in 1823 ; and, indeed, the 

 prevailing opinion of the time seemed divided between 

 various telluric theories, to the neglect of any cosmical 

 theory whatever. 



But in 1833 occurred a phenomenon which set the 

 matter finally at rest, A great meteoric shower oc- 

 curred in November of that year, and in observing it 

 Professor Denison Olmstead, of Yale, noted that all the 

 stars of the shower appeared to come from a single 

 centre or vanishing-point in the heavens, and that 

 this centre shifted its position with the stars, and hence 

 was not telluric. The full significance of this obser- 

 vation was at once recognized by astronomers; it de- 

 monstrated beyond all cavil the cosmical origin of the 

 shooting-stars. Some conservative meteorologists kept 



