Star- Showers of Former Times. 349 



Art. X. — Contributions towards a History of the Star-Showers 

 of Former Times; communicated by Edward C. Herrick, 

 Rec, Sec. of the Conn. Acad. 



[Read before the Connecticut Academy of Arts and Sciences, April 28, 1840; and 



since revised.] 



A FULL account of the showers of shooting stars which have 

 visited our planet, would much enlarge our knowledge of the 

 system of bodies from which we receive these brilliant strangers. 

 But a mere catalogue even, of all these displays is too much to 

 hope for, inasmuch as some of them have doubtless been con- 

 cealed by clouds, and others witnessed only by barbarians. Of 

 those which have been preserved by the historian, a complete 

 collection cannot at present be made in this country, owing to 

 the insufficiency of our means of historical inquiry. A large por- 

 tion of the materials for the present paper was collected in a 

 search which I made in 1837 and 1838, for the purpose of ob- 

 taining evidence of the annual occurrence in August of an unu- 

 sual number of shooting stars. The publication of the paper has 

 been delayed in the hope that it might be rendered less incom- 

 plete ; but I have now concluded to offer it in its present state, 

 trusting that those who have the opportunity, will supply its de- 

 ficiencies and correct its errors.* 



(1.) 1768 «/ears before Christ. "In the fiftieth year of the 

 reign of the emperor Kie or Li-Koue, i. e. the year 1768 [before 

 Christ] the Chinese saw stars falling :" [des etoiles tomber.] — 

 Cometographie par M. Pingre, Paris, 1783, t. 1, p. 248, 4to. ; 

 quoted from the Monarchim SiniccB Synopsis Chro?iologica, an- 

 nexed to Vol. 2, of Voyages de Mel. Thevenot, Paris, 1696. 



This statement is quite indefinite, and I cite it with some hes- 

 itation. The most probable meaning seems to be that a large 

 number of shooting stars was seen ; but it remains to be deter- 

 mined whether the original record warrants the construction here 

 assumed. 



(2.) 686 B. C. In the reign of the Emperor Le-wang, B. 0. 

 686, "the stars disappeared, and meteors fell like rain." — Med- 

 hursVs China, London, 1838, 8vo. App. No. 1, p. 570. 



* A partial list of the dates of these meteoric showers, was given in Vol. xsxiv, 

 p. 182, and also in Vol. xxxv, p. 367. 

 Vol. XL, No. 2.— Jan.-March, 1841. 45 



