CATALOGUE OF METEORITES AND FIREBALLS. 49 



Gicssen, 1859; Lithologia meteorica del Profesor Joaquin Balcells, Barce- 

 lona, 1854 ; Report on Meteorites, by Prof. Shepard ; Reports of the Smith- 

 sonian Institution, United States ; Silliman's American Journal ; as well as 

 various private notices and public journals. I have likewise to acknowledge 

 the kind assistance and valuable information received from Herr P. A. Kessel- 

 meyer, Dr. Buchner, Herr VV. von Haidinger, and Professor Heis. 



3. The few abbreviations used in this Catalogue speak for themselves, and 

 hardly need explanation. Where weights of meteorites are stated, it is gene- 

 rally intended to denominate lbs. Troy, English, though sometimes the Vienna 

 or Prussian pound has unavoidably been given. Tables of analysis are added 

 at the end of the catalogues. Genuine cases of stone- or iron-falls and de- 

 tonating meteors, are marked with an asterisk (*), and in the Tables count 

 for 1 ; doubtful cases are marked in the Catalogue with a (?), and count as \ 

 in the Tables. 



The numbers in some of the Tables, it will be found, do not quite agree 

 with those in the corresponding Tables given in the Report on Luminous 

 Meteors, in the Volume of the British Association Reports for 1860, owing 

 to the circumstance that when that Report was presented at the Oxford Meet- 

 ing the present Catalogue was not then quite completed. 



4. A few remarks are added to the Tables, which do not call for much 

 comment in this place, as they have mostly already been alluded to in the 

 aforesaid Report. With regard to the November period for shooting stars, 

 E. C. Herrick, of the United States, considers it to be advancing into the 

 year; in a.d. 1202, it occurred about the 26th October; in 1366 on October 

 30th ; so that the motion of the node of the zone or ring which furnishes 

 these shooting stars, is at the rate of 3 or 4 days a century ; the period itself 

 being a recurrent one probably of about 33 years. (See Silliman's Journal, 

 No. 91, p. 137, for January 1861.; 



5. In the Catalogue itself great care has been taken in separating the dif- 

 ferent kinds ol fireballs and aerolites; hitherto this has not been clone with 

 sufficient care, and large meteors have not unfrequently been called aerolitic, 

 when not even any detonation has been reported ; examples of this not 

 unfrequently occur in the catalogues of Baumhauer, Kamtz, and Arago. 

 Dr. Buchner of Giessen, and P. A. Kesselmeyer of Frankfort-on-Maine, will, 

 I understand, shortly bring out catalogues of aerolitic falls, where details 

 in matters concerning original authorities and geographical distribution, &c. 

 will be given very fully. 



In the Tables at the end of this Catalogue, Class A includes only cases 

 where stones or irons have really fallen ; Class B, meteors accompanied by 

 detonation ; Class C, first-class meteors not accompanied by detonation ; this 

 class includes all fireballs given in the catalogues up to the year 1820; after 

 that time, only the most remarkable ones, as in consequence of the subsequent 

 greatly increased number of observations from about that time, it is evident 

 the described fireballs would probably be of smaller size than for older ob- 

 servations ; Class D includes all fireballs mentioned in the catalogues and 

 supplements, large or small, where no detonation was reported, and of course 

 includes the C class. The Tables are so constructed, that a glance will suffice 

 to show the results as regards numbers and dates, and the proportion which 

 one class bears to another ; some of them will be found to be not without 

 some interest. 



Note. — Wherever the words •' Stone-fall " or " Iron-fall " occur, it may be 

 understood, as a rule, that such phenomenon was also accompanied by a 

 detonating fireball, or at least by a detonation. 



1860. E 



