162 On the Meteors of 13th November, 1833. 
have disturbed it vastly more. ‘Their own momentum, it must be 
recollected, could be lost only as it was imparted to the air; and the 
fact that the agitations of the atmosphere were, comparatively, so 
slight, is a striking proof that the quantity of matter contained in the 
meteors was exceedingly small. 
(3.) They were transparent bodies; otherwise, we cannot con- 
ceive how they could have existed together in their original state 
without being visible by reflected light. The body, or source, from 
which they emanated, must have had a great extent. If we con- 
template it under the idea of a ‘cloud,’ and the phenomenon itself 
as a ‘shower,’ then, after accounting in part for the great area which 
the shower covered by a supposed progressive motion of the cloud, 
still it must itself have extended over a great space. (See p. 142.) 
Now a body only 20 miles in diameter, at the distance of 2238 miles, 
would appear as large as the moon; and one 200 miles in diameter, 
would appear ten times as large as the moon. Such a body, if 
opake, and constituted like the planets, ought to be visible like them 
by reflected light; nor can we imagine a body of such dimensions, 
under such circumstances, which would not be visible, unless formed 
of highly transparent materials. 
If we were permitted to class unknown things with unknown, we 
should’ say, that the cloud which produced the fiery shower, consisted 
of nebulous matter, analogous to that which composes the tails of 
comets. We do not know, indeed, precisely what is the constitution 
of the material of which the latter are composed ; but we know that 
it is very ight, since it exerts no appreciable force of attraction on 
the planets, moving even among the satellites of Jupiter without dis- 
turbing their motions, although its own motions, in such cases, are 
greatly disturbed, thus proving its materiality ; and we know that it 
is exceedingly transparent, since the smallest stars are visible through 
it. Indeed, Sir John Herschel was able to see stars through the 
densest part of the small comet (Biela’s) which visited our planet last 
year. Hence, so far as we can gather any knowledge of the mate- 
rial of the nebulous matter of comets, and of that composing the me- 
teors of Nov. 13th, they appear to be analogous to each other.* 
* In farther elucidation of this point, the reader is requested to consult the recent 
Treatise on Astronomy by Sir J. Herschel, Chap. X, or a well written article on 
Comets, from the Companion to the British Almanac, inserted in the American Al- 
manac fg 1834. 
