358 THE ORGUEIL METEOR. 



of this phenomenon is thus demonstratad by a long period of observations. 

 Regarding it more closely and examining each year, it is found that this maximum 

 number is subject to deviations both of excess and defect. In 1800, on Aug. 10th, 

 there were only counted 59 stars per hour ; in 1848, there were 110; ten years 

 after, in 1858, the horary number fell to 88, and since that year it has been 

 gradually recovering. There is possibly a law of periodicity in these oscillatory 

 movements, as there was in the maximum recorded by Olbers and observed by 

 him on Nov. 12th, 1799 ; it was extremely rich at its commencement, but 

 gradually diminished almost to zero, afterwards as gradually increasing till it 

 regained its original brilliancy in 1833, when 130 per hour were counted; after 

 this year, it again decreased and has disappeared ; but, as the interval between 

 the first two appearances was Si years, a third is expected in ISeT. Seeing that 

 these excessive showers occur always at the same epoch, it must necessarily 

 be admitted that the earth in its annual course meets at the same points 

 of its path with banks of corpuscles disseminated through planetary space, 

 and in this view there has been proposed a hypothesis as ingenious as seduc- 

 tive. It is suggested that these asteroids are scattered on the circular con- 

 tour of an immense ring, having the sun in its centre, along which they 

 travel, one after the other, each individually completing like a small planet 

 a regular circuit round the sun. This great bank would be crossed by the 

 earth on August 10, and we should perceive traversing our atmosphere all those 

 corpuscles which passed in our neighbourhood. One, circumstance, not yet well 

 determined, but generally suspected by all observers, tends to augment the prob- 

 ability of this hypothesis — it has been remarked that on Aug. 10, the greater 

 part of the shooting stars seem to proceed from one and the same point in the 

 heavens. The real situation of this point is not agreed upon ; some place it in 

 Cepheus, and others in Cassiopeia or Aries ; but wherever it may be, this common 

 track which all the shooting stars of Aug. 10 follow, would be the path of the 

 corpuscles in the ring which includes them, during their i-evolution round the sun. 

 It is not my wish to write a romance, and yet I cannot pass over in silence some 

 results which Prof. Twinning has announced, and the responsibility for which I 

 leave to him. According to this author, the grand ring of corpuscles has a diame- 

 ter nearly equal to that of the earth's orbit, to the plane of which it is inclined at 

 an angle of 96 degrees ; its breadth is from 2,000,000 to 5,000,000 leagues, and 

 it consists of 300,000 milliards of corpuscles, which revolve about the buq in 281 

 days. Supposing each of these to have a radius of one metre, and that they were 

 all united to form a single sphere, the volume of this would be scarcely one tenth 

 of the earth's. I repeat that I do not believe we are yet in a position to state 

 numbers so precise, but we may certainly predict thus far — that a continuation 

 of the observations will be suiScient to establish a theory in which reality will 

 replace imagination. But in order to arrive at this, it will be necessary in the 

 first place to calculate the trajectories of these wandering bodies. This work has 

 long ago been commenced in the case of the meteors, as these have a long course, 

 and are visible to a great number of persons, and thus there are always notices 

 enough of this appearance to calculate the conditions of their passage. This is 

 what has been done for the meteorite of Orgueil, and which had already been 



