Dec. 25, 1873] 



NA TURE 



143 



Ihe thallium flame in purity of tint, but perhaps of a slightly 

 jialer or lii;hter hue, and it remained uniform like the brightness 

 of tliese meteors as long as they remained in sight, strongly 

 suggesting that either copper, barium, thallium, silver, or some 

 other element giving, in some of its combinations, an intensely 

 green spectrum, was undergoing vivii iijnition in their flame. 

 As each of these bright meteors preseated a sensibly round disc 

 (the first several times brigh'.er, and the second a little brighter 

 than the planet Jupiter), without visible sparks or train ol any 

 other colour than that of the head wliich could give rise to the 

 green colour by the effect of contrast, and yet the green hue %\'a5 

 much more distinct than I have noticed in any other meteors, not 

 omitting some bright ones accompanied by very ruddy streaks 

 in the principal displays of November 14, it appears to be a 

 distinguisliing feature of the brighter meteors of the annual star- 

 shower of December, to which it would be very useful on occa- 

 sions of its future return to direct particular attention. The 

 meteors of this star-shower are, however, seldom of very con- 

 siderable brightness, and tlie occurrence of one such during its 

 recent appearance not improbably marked its return during the 

 present year with somewhat more than ordinary intensity. The 

 meteor was simultaneously observed at Glasgow and at New- 

 castle upon Tyne, and its apparent paths among the constellations 

 at those places, directed from the usual radiant point in Gemini, 

 with tlie duration of its flight, will enable the real height and the 

 speed of motion of one of the principal meteors of the shower 

 to be pretty exactly ascertained. 



During many hours of repeated observations under tlie most 

 favourable conditions of the sky on the nights between the 

 23rd and the 30th ult., and again on the 5th of this month, when 

 observers for the return of the shower ol meteors belonging to 

 Biela's comet were on the watch for its appearance at different 

 places in England, Scotland and Ireland, the reports of their 

 observations which have hitherto been communicated to the 

 Luminous Meteor Committee of the British Ass jciation have been 

 entirely negative, scarcely a single meteor of the few which were 

 observed being recognised as belonging to the well-known radiant- 

 point of the shower, which was so conspicuous last year in 

 Andromeda. At various times during, the night of the 

 271h of November itself, when the sky was generally clear, no 

 meteors of this description were visible, and their absence on all 

 the other nights when the state of the sky permitted a watch to 

 be kept for them scarcely leaves any reasonable grounds for the 

 supposition that even a comparatively insignificant return of last 

 year's meteor-showers of the 24th and 27th of November has 

 this year been visible in England on the same or on any very 

 nearly adjacent dates. A. S. HERsciitL 



NewcajtIe-on-Tyne 



Meteor Shower 



From the reported weather in England it seems improbable 

 that the Geminid meteor shower was well observed in England, 

 and as the return was rather above the average a few particulars 

 of what was seen here may at least be interesting. 



The nights of the loth and nth, when the watch was kept, 

 were exceedingly clear. Except for a quarter of an hour at the 

 commencement of the fi'st watch there was only one observer, 

 then there were two. The position taken was a window, N. E., 

 whence all was visible from about 3" from the zenith to the hills 

 opposite {perhaps 10° or 15°), behind which only one meteor disap- 

 ]ieared, whilst only one was noticed whose course was part hidden 

 by the roof. The average per hour on the ll hours' watch on 

 tlie loth must have b;en about 3S, and on the 2 hours' watch on 

 the 1 1 th, 60. But the rate in the second hour was much in ex- 

 cess of the first ; taking the two thus the result is, from lo-ii, 

 about 30, Irom 11 -12 about 8S. In all probability the rate would 

 have not been much below in the morning hours, but having a 

 cold I did not stop longer. 



The brightness was, I think, rather below the aver.ige, but as 

 tabulated it was as follows : — 



Bright as Jupiter I 

 ,, Sirius 2 

 , , I magn. :(= 9 

 .. 2 .. "7 

 ,. 3 .. '° 

 ,. 4 ,. 23 

 „ 5 .. 2 

 A comparison with the radiant points in Mr. R. P. Grey's list 

 makes it seem tliat the meteors were distributed over at least nine, 



and that two of these are ones not included by him. Of these 

 one seems pretty certainly fixed .about R.A. 57^ N.8 6", and to 

 this I have assigned 14 on the two nights. The other is more 

 doubtful, two nearly parallel meteors appeared on the loth, op- 

 posite in direction to the others ; their point may be about R.A. 

 275" N.5. 60°. 



An apparent discrepancy in the total seen and the tabulated 

 numbers is explained by the fact that some meteors were not well 

 enough seen to be entered. But on the regular watch of the 

 nth I had the unusual success of entering every one seen, in 

 consequence I believe of the position I had assumed, i.e. seeing 

 less than half the heavens and lying on my back. Several 

 cases of almost, or perfectly, simultaneous meteors appeared, but 

 of these only 4 pairs were from the same radiant. 



J. Edmund Clark 



Heidelberg, Dec. 16 



THE L.4TE PROFESSOR DE L.4. RIVE 



O WITZERLAND has in one month been shorn of two 

 •— ' of her most distinguished ornaments. De La Rive 

 and Agassiz have died within a fortnight of each other, 

 and the "Academic des Sciences" has thus been de- 

 prived in the same month of a fourth of its Foreign Asso- 

 ciates. Agassiz will no doubt find, both in Switzerland 

 and America, more than one pen competent to describe 

 his labours in the field of science ; but a few lines on the 

 life and researches of de la Rive are due to this distin- 

 guished philosopher, and will be read with interest in 

 this country, which he has often visited, and in which he 

 had many friends. 



Born at Geneva in i8or, of an old family closely con- 

 nected with Cavour, Auguste de la Rive inherited from 

 his lather the love of science in general, and more espe- 

 cially of electricity. After going through the usual 

 course of studies with brilliant success, he was, at the 

 early age of twenty-two, called to the Chair of Natural 

 Philosophy in the Academy of Geneva, and took his seat 

 amongst the distinguished men of that city. 



Although de la Rive devoted his time principally to 

 the study of the different branches of electricity and 

 their numerous applications, his acquirements were not 

 limited to that department of science. During the 

 earlier part of his career the subject of specific heat, 

 more particularly applied to gases, and a series of experi- 

 ments on the temperature of the crust of the earth, were 

 published by him conjointly with a friend and colleague. 

 Uut electricity remained his favourite study to the end of 

 his life. The treatise he published between the years 

 1853 and 185S, in three large octavo volumes on the 

 subject of electricity, translated into English by Mr. 

 C. Walker, F. R.S., and the numerous original articles 

 which appeared in the well-known monthly journal, Les 

 Arcliivcs cf Elcciriciic, for many years under the direction 

 of de la Rive, afford ample proof of the extent of his 

 information on all subjects connected with his favourite 

 pursuit. His original memoirs on electro-dynamics, mag- 

 netism, the connection of magnetism with electricity, 

 the nature of the voltaic arc, and on the propagation of 

 electricity in the interior of bodies, more especially 

 through extremely rarefied media, and others too 

 numerous to be quoted, ensured him a high Euro- 

 pean reputation, to which was soon added the title 

 of Member or Correspondent of almost every scien- 

 tific body in Europe. In 1840 lie was named Cor- 

 respondent of the French Academie des Sciences ; in 

 1846, Foreign Member of the Royal Society, and finally in 

 1864 he was elected Foreign Associate of the Academic 

 des Sciences, the highest honour to which a man of 

 science can aspire. 



It was de la Rive who first conceived the idea of 

 applying the force of electricity, through the means of 

 alkaline solutions, to the gilding of silver and brass, and 



