Prof, Olmsted on the Zodiacal Light. 319 



4 



essay, I suggested the possibility that the zodiacal light might 

 be the body in question. I was rehjctant, however; to insist 

 on such a connection, because the existence of the nebulous 

 body was inferred from evidence wholly independent of the 

 zodiacal h'ght^ and even before the zodiacal h'j^ht was thought 



of. la fact, at that time I had very vague ideas respecting this 

 light, as something that appears in the west after twilight about 

 the time of the vernal equinox, but I did not even know that it 

 was ever visible at the period of the year when the Nov^ember 

 meteors occurred ; for at that time I had never read either the 

 observations of Cassini on this body, or the treatise of Mairaii 

 on the Aurora BorealiSj where so much is ascribed to its agency 

 in the production of this latter phenomenon. Nearly twenty 

 yeai's have since elapsed, and I have had sufficient opportunity to 

 observe the zodiacal light, and to reflect on the question of its 

 possible connection with the meteoric showers of November and 

 August, The result is, an increasing conviction of such a con- 

 nection. I may here remark that the first idea of such an origin 

 of the November meteors, is now generally ascribed by European 

 Writers to M. Biot. It may be proper, however, to state that the 

 paper in which M. Biot first mentions the subject, is an essay 

 read before the French Academy soon after the meteoric shov/er 

 of November, 1836, three years after my paper was published. 

 M. Biot does, indeed, favor the idea that these showers of meteors 

 have their origin in the zodiacal light; but in noticing the views 

 which I had published, respecting the cause of the meteoric 

 shower, which he did me the honor to review at some length and 

 in a manner very encouraging to myself, he distinctly stated that 

 I had in my paper suggested the idea that the zodiacal light 

 flight possibly be tFie very nebulous body in question. 



I am aware that the opinions I have formed differ widely from 

 those entertained by many members oi this Association^ whose 

 eminent talents and great success in the investigation of trutli 

 entitle them to the highest deference ; but, should I fail of con- 

 vincing them of the correctness of my views, 1 still indulge the 

 hope that I may secure increased attention to a natural phenome- 

 J^on, which appears to me to have important relations to our solar 

 system, as well as to several of the most sublime and mysterious 

 phenomena of nature. 



In the paper which I published in the American Journal of 

 Science in the year 1834, on the cause of the great meteoric 

 shower of November 13th, 1833, I inferred the existence, in the 

 planetary spaces, of a nebulous body revolving around the sun, 

 the extreme portions of which on the I3th of November lay over 

 or across the earth's orbit, in such a manner that the earth- passed 

 through it, or at least near enough to it to attract portions of ]t 

 into its atmosphere, w^here they took fire and exhibited the 



