OBSEHVATIONS OF LUAflNOUS METBORS. 401 



projection from the sun's present surface of 380 miles per second would have 

 sufficed to carry it beyond the limits of the solar system never to return*. 

 The existence of such forces, and the evidence wliich the microscope affords 

 that aerolites have had their origin among mineral masses in a state of 

 fusion, if not of vapour, combine to support a theory formerly entertained by 

 other writers, and recently announced most definitely by Mr. Proctor in 

 England f and Prof. Eirkwood in America as an " astro-meteorological 

 hypothesis " of the origin of meteors and meteorites. By a still more 

 remarkable supposition Mr. Proctor proposes to regard the class of periodic 

 comets with their attendant trains of meteors as originally projected from 

 the major planets^ Jupiter, Uranus, or Is^eptnne, in the neighbourhood of whose 

 orbits it is well known that the greater number of their aphelia are placed ; 

 and some peculiarities of the light as well as of the dense atmosphere of the 

 largest of these planets, Jupiter, renders it probable that it is partially self- 

 luminous, and that it still continues to be in a more sunlike state than the 

 smaller primary and secondary planets of the solar systemj. A close appulso 

 of the November meteor-comet to the earth is pointed out by Mr. Hind as 

 having probably occurred in the year 1366, when it was observed in China in 

 the same month of October with the memorable star-shower recorded in some 

 parts of Europe in that year. Another visible return of the comet appears 

 to have taken place in 868, when its path among the constellations was also 

 recorded in China, and appears to be in good agreement with the orbit of the 

 present coraet§. It also appears that the November meteor-shower may be 

 of older date than the period assigned by M. Le Verrier (a.d. 126) to its last 

 encounter with the planet Uranus, a previous encounter with that planet not 

 less close having been shown by Prof. Kirkwood (in the journal above quoted, 

 p. 338) to have taken place in the year b.c. 43, Avhile the next close appulse 

 of the comet to the planet Avill ha^jpen in the year 1983. 



A general list of approximate agreements between orbits of comets and 

 those of observed meteor-showers, extracted from the works of Weiss, S(5hia- 

 parelli, and Schmidt, will be found collected, exclusive of the four well-known 

 examples of perfect correspondence in the cases of the April, August, and two 

 great November showers, in the Heport of the Council to the last Annual 

 General Meeting of the E,oyal Astronomical Society, where the length of the 

 list, and a due regard for the limited space of this Report, will only permit 

 its insertion to be noticed l|; but a peculiarity in two of the accordances 

 appears to claim exception in order to explain the supposed agreements which 

 they present. In the early parts of April and August two meteor- showers 

 are found to proceed, the former from a radiant-point between Corona and 

 Bootes, and the latter from near the north pole of the heavens, agreeing well 

 with the radiant-points of corresponding comets whose line of nodes the 

 earth encounters at those dates. But the orbits of these comets falling far 

 within the orbit of the earth, it is not possible th;it an encounter of tlie earth 

 with any meteors Ijnng upon their tracks could be produced. These accord- 

 ances must therefoi'c be rejected, unless, with Weiss and Schiaparelli, it is 



* " Astro-meteorology," by Prof. D. Kirkwood, U.S., ' The Popular Science Montbly,' 

 1871, p. 335. 



t ' Oornhill Magazine,' November 1871. — In the 'Proceedings of the Eoyal Society,' 

 vol. xiv. pp. 1"20-120, Miirch 1805 (see these Reports for 1865, pp. 132 and 140), the lato 

 Prof. Brayley, founding his observations on the microsuopieal investigations of Mr. 

 Sorby (vol. xiii. of the same ' Proseedings,' p. 333), strongly maintained, although he some- 

 what less lucidly developed, the same hypothesis. 



J " The Origin of the November Meteors," by E. A. Proctor, Monthly Notices of the 

 Eoyal Astronomical Society, vol. xx\iii. p. 45. § Ibid. p. 49. || Ibid. p. 200 . 



]873. ' 2d 



