OBSEllA'ATIOXiS OF LUMINOUS METEORS. 109 



of shooting-stars made at the observatory of Moncalieri contiiuie to be pub- 

 lished in the Meteorological Bulletin of that observatory, in which nearly 

 1000 meteor-paths observed before the end of April 1869 have been already 

 published. All the observers' notes are also transmitted to Milan for final 

 reduction and arrangement in a collective Catalogue by Professor Schiaparelli. 

 In connexion with this extensive research, an enlarged edition of his ori- 

 ginal Memoir on the Astronomical Theory of Shooting-stars* has recently 

 been compiled by Professor Schiaparelli, and was published last year under 

 his directions, as a separate volume, in the German language by Dr. vou 

 Boguslawski, of Stettin f. The materials of the original Treatise have been 

 much increased, so as to present a full account of the recent investigations in 

 meteoric science whose results have most contributed to advance this modern 

 branch of astronomj^ since the publication of his former work. A complete 

 Table of all the 189 radiant-points obtained from Zezioli's observatiousj, 

 the full particulars of Avhich have not been previously published, is also em- 

 bodied in the work, with a supplementary Table showing the position of each 

 radiant-point with regard to the apex of the earth's way, and the principal 

 elements of its parabolic or cometary orbit. In a list of notes on the several 

 radiant-points, a comparison of their positions with those obtained by other 

 observers, showing them in many cases to corroborate or to correct former 

 observations, is made to connect the new list of radiant-points in every im- 

 portant point of agreement with the older lists of Heis, Greg, and Schmidt, 

 and with the separate determinations of special radiant-points by individual 

 observers. A useful summary of these results is given by Mr. Greg in the 

 accompanying comparative Table of radiant-points, presenting in one view aU 

 the points of difference and resemblance between the several general cata- 

 logues of radiant-points which have hitherto been published, with the excep- 

 tion of the extensive Catalogue recently printed by Dr. Schmidt in the second 

 volume of the publications of the Observatory of Athens, to which the Com- 

 mittee have not yet been able to refer §. With the aid of observations received 

 since the appearance of the last printed Meteor-Catalogue in these Reports, 

 the Committee propose to consider more closely the epochs and positions of 

 the general radiant-points exhibited in this Table, and to enter in a future 

 Report into a complete discussion of the identity and of the comparative im- 

 portance of the difi:erent families or groups of meteoric showers which, in 

 many instances, it appears most properly to represent. 



* "Note e Reflessioni intorno allaTeoria Astronomica delle Stelle Cadenti." (See these 

 Eeports for 1868, p. 407.) 



t Eiitwiirf einer astronomisehen Theorie der Sternschnuppen, von. J. V. Schiaparelli. 

 Aus dem Italienischen iibersetzt und herausgegeben ron Georg von Boguslawski (8vo, with, 

 four Plate.s, 268 pp.). Stettin, 1871, Verlag von Th. von der Nahmer. 



I A Table of the principal meteor-showers only of this later list was formerly pub- 

 lished by Professor Schiaparelli (v/dc Eeport for 1870, p. 1)8), with sliglit subsequent alte- 

 rations in two Memoirs in the Ephemerides of the Milan Observatory, containing annota- 

 tions on the history and characteristics of each meteor-shower of the List, one memoir in- 

 cluding the meteor-showers observed in each half year. That for the first half year was 

 noticed in the last Report (1871, pp. 44-48), and the concluding Memoir has since been 

 received by the Committee from Prof. Schiaparelli. To this complete cycle of meteor- 

 showers, and to the descriptive notes wliich it contains, fiu-ther consideration will be devoted 

 in the next Report. 



§ The same Table is also presented by Dr. Schmidt in the ' Astronomiscbe Nach rich ten,' 

 Ko. 1756. 



