Curiosities of Science. 89 



conducted. The discovery of Astraea and Hebe by Professor Hencke, 

 in 1845 and 1847, revived the flagging spirit of inquiry in this direction ; 

 with what success, the list of fifty-two asteroids, with their names and 

 the dates of their discovery, will best show. The labours of our indefa- 

 tigable countryman, Mr. Hind, have been rewarded by the discovery of 

 no less than eight of them. 



FIRE-BALLS AND SHOOTING STARS. 



Humboldt relates, that a friend at Popayan, at an elevation 

 of 5583 feet above the sea-level, at noon, when the sun was 

 shining brightly in a cloudless sky, saw his room lighted up by 

 a fire-ball : he had his back towards the window at the time, 

 and on turning round, perceived that great part of the path 

 traversed by the fire-ball was still illuminated by the brightest 

 radiance. The Germans call these phenomena star-snuff, from 

 the vulgar notion that the lights in the firmament undergo a 

 process of snuffing, or cleaning. Other nations call it a shot or 

 fall of stars, and the English star-shoot. Certain tribes of the 

 Orinoco term the pearly drops of dew which cover the beautiful 

 leaves of the heliconia star-spit. In the Lithuanian mythology, 

 the nature and signification of falling stars are embodied under 

 nobler and more graceful symbols. The Parca3, Werpeja, weave 

 in heaven for the new-born child its thread of fate, attaching 

 each separate thread to a star. When death approaches the 

 person, the thread is rent, and the star wanes and sinks to the 

 earth. Jacob Grimm. 



THEORY AND EXPERIENCE. 



In the perpetual vicissitude of theoretical views, says the 

 author of Giordano Bruno , "most men see nothing in philo- 

 sophy but a succession of passing meteors; whilst even the 

 grander forms in which she has revealed herself share the fate 

 of comets, - bodies that do not rank in popular opinion amongst 

 the external and permanent works of nature, but are regarded 

 as mere fugitive apparitions of igneous vapour." 



METEORITES FROM THE MOON. 



The hypothesis of the selenic origin of meteoric stones de- 

 pends upon a number of conditions, the accidental coincidence 

 of which could alone convert a possible to an actual fact. The 

 view of the original existence of small planetary masses in space 

 is simpler, and at the same time more analogous with those 

 entertained concerning the formation of other portions of the 

 solar system. 



Diogenes Laertius thought aerolites came from the sun ; but Pliny 

 derides this theory. The fall of aerolites in bright sunshine, and when 

 the moon's disc was invisible, probably led to the idea of sun-stones. 

 Moreover Anaxagoras regarded the sun as " a molten fiery mass ;" and 



