Shooting Stars of December 7, V&^Q. 361 



Akt. XIX. — -Report on the Shooting Stars of December 7, 1838, 

 with remarks 07i Shooting Sta?^s in general. By Edward C. 

 Herrick, Record. Sec. of the Conn. Acad, of Arts and Sciences. 



At the conclusion of the Report on the meteors of last August, 

 (p. 173 of this vol.) it was stated that on the night of Dec. 6, 1798, 

 Brandes witnessed a remarkably large number of shooting stars.* 

 This fact was first communicated to me in April last, by Professor 

 Loomis, of Western Reserve College. Believing that phenomena 

 of this nature result from celestial causes more or less permanent, 

 I at once entertained strong hopes and considerable expectation 

 that a return of this display would now be seen on or about the 

 same period of the year. I well knew that our knowledge of the 

 true system of shooting stars was too imperfect to warrant the 

 prediction, that a meteoric display which had been once observed, 

 would ever after, in greater or less degree, be visible at the same 

 season, in all parts of the earth. Yet the fact that since proper 

 observations have been made, a season of meteoric abundance has 

 been detected, about the 10th of August and the 13th of No- 



* The entire account of this display is given in the following extract, the original 

 of which arrived to-day in a letter from Prof. Loomis. The work from which it is 

 taken, is entitled, " Versuche die Entfernung, die Geschwindigheit und die Bahnen 

 der Sternschnuppen zu bestimmen : von J. J. Benzenberg und H. W. Brandes. 

 Hamburg, 1800. 8vo." — " It will be proper here briefly to relate an observation 

 which I [H. W. Brandes] had an opportunity to make, while on a journey from 

 Gottingen to my native place. As I was travelling, on the evening of the 6th of 

 December, 1793, from Harburg to Buxtehude in an open post- wagon, I liad the 

 gratification of seeing a larger number of shooting stars than I had ever before wit- 

 nessed. I first noticed them soon after the close of evening twilight, and having 

 no other business, I kept count of the number which appeared in the small segment 

 of the heavens which I could with convenience survey from my seat. For the 

 sake of greater accuracy, at the end of every hundred, I noted the time by my 

 watch, which there was just light enough to enable me to do. They appeared in 

 such numbers that for about four hours, I counted as many as 100 an hour. Occasion- 

 ally they came at a much more rapid rate; — often 6 or 7 in a minute. After this, 

 [about 10 P. M.] they were much less frequent, and during the whole night, I saw 

 only 480, although I had counted in the four first hours alone, over 400. In order 

 to be certain that no one portion of the sky was richer than the rest, I looked occa- 

 sionally at other parts of the heavens, but found no diff'erence. I may, therefore, 

 safely say, that on this evening, many thousand shooting stars must have been vis- 

 ible above my horizon." — It does not appear that Brandes noticed at this time any 

 point of radiation; or tliat he watched in subsequent years for a return of the dis- 

 play. The idea of a periodical shower of meteors had tiien probably never been 

 advanced. 



Vol. XXXV.— No. 2. 46 



