132 report — 1865. 



The following hourly numbers were observed at seasons when meteors were 

 most frequent : — 



Between Jan. 25 and 27 5-0 Between Aug. 31 and Sept. 4 4-3 

 June 2 „ 10 41 „ Dec. 11 „ „ 13 4-5 



„ July 26 „ 31 7-5 „ „ 23 „ „ 25 5-2 



Aug. 13 „ 18 7-8 

 It may be noticed that, at Melbourne, meteors at the latter end of July 

 are nearly as abundant as in August. 



(5.) Inferences and Suggestions in Cosmical and Geological Philosophy. New 

 Theory of the Origin and Formation of Meteorites. By Professor E. W. 

 Brayley, E.E.S. 



Professor Brayley, a Member of the Committee, communicated to the Royal 

 Society on the 23rd of February last (1865), a paper entitled " Inferences and 

 Suggestions in Cosmical and Geological Philosophy," an abstract of which was 

 read on March 23rd, and appears in the ' Proceedings ' of the Society, No. 73, 

 vol. xiv. p. 120-129. In this paper a new theory of the origin and formation 

 of meteorites is enunciated. 



In the introductory section, the author calls attention to the fact that the 

 position, powers, and functions of the Sun, as the physical centre of the solar 

 system, are peculiar, and in fact unique. The " Primary Induction " from 

 them, — indicating, in his opinion, " the principle of philosophical investiga- 

 tion " which should be applied to the Sun, — is conceived by him to be " That 

 they imply a corresponding uniqueness and peculiarity in its constitution, 

 characterizing also the nature as well as the disposition of the substances of 

 which it essentially consists. But the particular density of the Sun indicates 

 that it actually consists both of ponderable and imponderable matter. The 

 nature of the former as constituting apparently its relatively exterior regions 

 [is] believed to be made known in part by Professor Kirchhoffs researches in 

 Prismatic Chemistry applied to the Sun, as showing that some of the ele- 

 mentary substances of the Earth exist also in the Sun"*. 



The author proceeds to state some of his reasons for believing " that, as a 

 class, the stars are the most ancient objects in the creation, and also (each in 

 its own sphere of action) the origins of the series of physical agencies and 

 processes by which the planets and other classes of heavenly bodies were 

 finally produced and are maintained." This being admitted, he infers that 

 the original production of ponderable matter takes place in the stars, and in 

 our Sun as one of them — a conception to which he had been led by the pre- 

 ceding and other considerations long before the application of prismatic che- 

 mistry to the Sun. 



The energy set free in the condensation within the Sun, of matter in its 

 highest and most elementary character, of course imponderable, which is 

 conceived by the author to be essential to it, into ponderable matter (an ex- 

 pression which is shown not to be a solecism) and eventually into the me- 

 tallic vapours which the observations of Kirchhoif and other spectroscopists 

 have discovered in the Sun and other stars, is inferred to be at once the ex- 

 clusive proximate source of the heat and light and other energies of the Sun, 

 and (in our solar system) the only and universal origin of ponderable matter, 

 the absolute synthesis of which, from its imponderable elements, is thus be- 

 lieved to take place in the Sun. 



In the second section, the " Cause and Nature of the Phenomena called the 



* Syllabus of Lectures on Astronomical Physics, delivered at the London Institution in 

 1864, here cited from a revised edition, printed for private use. Lecture V. 



