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NATURE 
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| Dec. 12, 1872 
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Os EN =m! 
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I 
number of NATURE as having been seen by Mr, Denning at 
Bristol on the evening of the 23rd ult., as well as a single other 
shooting star noted during a watch of the sky whenever it was 
clear by the same observer on that evening, seem, from their appa- 
rent courses, to have been both possibly directed from the now 
well-known radiant point of the meteors of Biela’s comet, but 
only a small number of shooting stars appears to have been 
visible on that night. During a watch for ten minutes, kept at 
four different times between half-past 7 and half-past 9 P.M. on 
the following evening, near Regent’s Park, in London, Mr. H. 
W. Jackson observed, in each watch, a shooting star as bright 
as a first-magnitude star directed in each case from the recently 
determined radiant point ; while, with an equally uncloudy sky, 
on the following evening of the 25th, three small meteors from 
the same radiant point, and two brighter ones from other direc- 
tions, were seen by Mr. Denning at Bristol between 8 and 11 
P.M. in two intervals of a watch for half an hour. A small 
meteor of the same stream was recorded by Mr. Denning on the 
26th, but their numbers on this, as on the previous nights, were 
evidently inconsiderable, a clear view of the sky on the night of the 
26th, between 11h. 20m. and 12h. 4om., affording Mr. Jackson, at 
Tooting, no observation ofa single meteor. The time of first 
approach and commencement of the bright star-shower seen on 
the evening of the 27th ult. must therefore have been later than 
shortly before 1 o’clock on the previous morning. A completely 
overcast state of the sky after midnight on the night of the shower 
appears to have prevented observations ofits close, and probably 
of its complete extinction on that night, after the greatly- 
diminished intensity which it had then attained; but a corre- 
spondent in London informs me that, in spite of the densely 
overcast state of the sky, which prevented any view of the 
~ shower from being obtained in the metropolis, an ex- 
ceedingly bright meteor was seen to flash like lightning 
through the clouds at about 4 o'clock, AM., on the 
28th. On the evening of the 28th Mr. Greg watched for 
shooting stars, and for any remnants of the star-shower of the 
previous evening which might be visible, at Buntingford, in 
Herts ; but although the sky was quite clear he failed to see any 
meteors. A strict watch for outlying meteors of the shower was 
also kept by two observers at Hawkhurst, in Kent, on the even- 
ing of the 28th, where the sky was quite cloudless between 9h. 
and 1th, 15m. P.M., but without success, only four shooting 
stars of ordinary character being visible during more than two 
hours of their simultaneous watch. An interval of about forty- 
four hours is thus clearly determined in which the first indica- 
tions of the star-shower must have arisen, reaching the maximum 
of its intensity towards the middle of the period, and disappear- 
ing so completely before its termination as to leave the whole 
expanse of the sky almost as perfectly free from shooting stars 
as it was before its commencement. 
In addition to the early appearance of the shower recorded in 
Nature of the 5th inst. as having been seen near Dublin, I 
have received the following communications from observers 
relating to its early visibility and abundance. At Brancepeth, 
near Durham, Mr. Joseph Lawson first began to count the 
meteors at 5 o'clock, and continued to enumerate them until, 
towards 7 o’clock, their constantly increasing frequency obliged 
him to desist. During the last half hour of his estimation the 
rate of their appearance was about ten per minute, while a total 
number of 1,000 meteors was counted between 5 and 7 o’clock. 
The rate of their appearance in the first was thus little less than 
that of their appearance in the latter portion of his watch. Mr. 
S. J. Miller, at Wisbeach, first noticed the abundance of shoot- 
ing stars at 5h. 4om., and counted in three minutes twenty 
meteors, or about six or seven per minute. Soon after this, at 
about 6 o'clock, their number was ten or twelve per minute. 
During their appearance before 6 o'clock, Mr. Wood, 
at Birmingham, considered them to be falling from 
5h. 45m. when he first observed them, at a rate of about 
fifteen per minute, while the result of his enumeration 
between 6h. and 7h. was at least 600 meteors, and in occa- 
sionalintervals between 6h. and 7h. 15m., when the sky became 
gradually overcast, the average rate of appearance was found to 
be increasing nearly uniformly from 8 to 10 per minute, showing 
that the intensity of the display before 6 o’clock was little 
inferior to the maximum which it appears afterwards to have 
gradually attained. At York the first attempt to estimate their 
numbers was made by Mr. T. H. Waller, at 5.30 o’clock, when 
the meteors were found to be appearing at the rate of 12 or 15 
per minute. At 6 o’clock their numbers had increased to about 
20, and at 7 o'clock to about 30 or 40 per minute for one 
observer. At 8 o’clock the best determination of their numbers 
was however obtained by two of Mr. Waller’s scholars, who, 
standing back to back, counted 79 meteors in Im. I5s. or 31 
meteors per minute for each observer. The principal maxima 
of the shower at about 6h. jom., and 8h. 15m. P.M., as mostly 
clearly shown by the continuous observations of Mr. Lowe at 
Highfield House, and by Prof. Grant, who was assisted in his 
observations at the Glasgow Observatory by Prof. G. Forbes, are 
also generally indicated by the observations which I have re- 
ceived, and the gradual diminution of the shower after 9 o’clock 
was observed at Newcastle-upon-Tyne as well as by some of 
the observers who combined in their watch for its appear- 
ance for the British Association. The frequency of the 
meteors after 9 o’clock was regarded by Mr. Wood as not more 
than a quarter of what it was at about 6 o’clock, when they were 
first seen, yet these numbers continued for some time to be con- 
siderable and quite unusual, Near Rothbury, in Northumber- 
land, repeated estimations of their abundance were made by Mr. 
G. A. Lebour in different parts of the sky, and at different times 
between the hours of 7 and 10 o’clock, with the following 
results :— 
From 7! 20™ to 7h 28™ 100 meteors falling perpendicularly 
in the west (the east cloudy). 
100 meteors falling vertically in the 
east (the west cloudy). 
7 48 100 ” ” 
9 15 Meteors too numerous to count at 
gh., falling in showers at 9h. 15m., 
especially in the north ; one bright 
red with beautiful red streak, 
which lasted more than Io seconds. 
Meteors still falling, but in smaller 
numbers. 
In 20 minutes after 10 o’clock 35 meteors were seen by one 
observer in a clear part of the sky, which scarcely exceeded a 
quarter of the sky. In 10 minutes after 11 o'clock ten meteors — 
only were counted in the same space, and in 20 minutes after 12 
o'clock 9 meteors only could be seen. The rate of decrease of 
the shower from shortly before 10 o’clock until after midnight 
was thus apparently more rapid, and the decline of its intensity 
appears to have been considerably more complete than the first 
brightness and progress of its gradual increase may be concluded 
to have been during the earliest hours of its observation, 
Newcastle-upon-Tyne, Dec. 7 A. S. HERSCHEL 
7 35 
7 45 
yn) 
7 40 
I0 oO 
The De Novo Production of Living Things 
WILL you allow me to ask Dr. Bastian to state in your 
columns, in reply to this note, the specific gravity of the turnip 
infusion, to which a “fragment” of cheese has been added, and 
which, he states, has rarely failed to give him positive results ia 
his endeavours to obtain evidence of the de ovo production of 
living things from dead matter. If Dr. Bastian should be un- 
able to give the specific gravity of the infusion, perhaps he will 
be so good as to state accurately the weights of water, turnip, 
and cheese employed. Iam, of course, acquainted with the 
directions he has already given, but wish to avoid any objection 
from him or others on the score of improper preparation of the 
infusion to results which I may obtain and publish. 
E. Ray LANKESTER 
Exeter College, Oxford, Dec.7 
The Birth of Chemistry 
Your correspondent, ‘‘ A. H.,” in alluding to my mention of 
the /usule Cassiterides, inquires whether the name was derived 
from a Sanskrit source. The word xastrepos is used both by 
Homer and Hesiod, and it is possible that it may have been 
borrowed from the Sanskrit Zastira, and that tin was first pro- 
cured from India, The Sanskrit word for tin— sastira—is clearly 
related to the verb 4ds, to shine. It is strange that the Arabic 
word for tin is £dsd7r, closely resembling the Sanskrit, although 
there is no family relationship between the languages, Possibly 
the Pheenicians first procured tin from India, and gave it a 
name resembling its native name Aastira ; then the Greeks con- 
verted the Phoenician word into kacotrepos, the Romans bor- 
rowed the word from the Greeks, and the fact of the scarce 
