On the Meteors of 13th JVovemher. 359 



any considerable degree susceptible of magnetism. It is then prob- 

 able, that the columns of the meteor are at least in a great measure 

 composed of metallic particles reduced to powder of extreme fine- 

 ness." 



"If columns consisting in part of metallic substances are suspen- 

 ded in nearly a vertical position in the atmosphere, hke the columns 

 of the aurora borealis when they float over regions adjacent to the 

 pole, the electricity of the atmospheric strata at the summit and base 

 of the columns will find in them so many conductors more or less 

 perfect, and if this tendency of electricity to diffuse itself uniformly 

 is sufficient to overcome the resistance arising from the imperfect 

 conducting power of the columns, it will flow along these columns, 

 illuminating its path, as is often observed in conductors which are not 

 continuous. When this passage takes place in the higher regions of the 

 atmosphere, where the air, on account of its rarity, offers very little 

 resistance, the electricity will flow on silently with all those varia- 

 tions of light which we observe in exhausted tubes. But if it ex- 

 tends itself to the inferior strata, it must necessarily occasion such 

 hissing and crackling noises, as are found to accompany the aurora 

 borealis, when it descends near the surface of the earth." 



In the following paragraph one would be led to suppose that the au- 

 thor was describing the same phenomenon as that observed in this 

 country on the 13th instant. 



" But, independently of the luminous jets which may thus be pro- 

 duced by the simple passage of electricity along the metallic columns, 

 a passage which in virtue of a property lately discovered, might of 

 itself be sufficient to magnetize these columns; we can hardly help 

 considering the phenomena in question as proceeding from an actual 

 combustion in the phosphoric clouds, which, detaching themselves in 

 some cases from the burning meteor, as affirmed by many observers, 

 and as I have myself seen, transport with them the principle of their 

 phosphorescence, and emit at intervals jets of light resembling rock- 

 ets, which leave after them a whitish train. We must then regard 

 it as at least a very probable supposition, that the aurora borealis is 

 composed of substances, capable occasionally of inflammation, either 

 of a spontaneous kind, or in consequence of a discharge of electri- 

 city from the clouds which contain it." 



My object is not to defend this beautiful hypothesis, but simply to 

 show that the resemblances between the aurora borealis and the phe- 

 nomenon in question are so striking, as to justify us in referring both 



