494 OBSERVATIONS OF THE NOVEMBER METEORS. 



''that I have come here with the intention of doing justice to your preten- 

 sions;" and then he examined Lescerbault's primitive apparatus, cross- 

 questioned him sharply, and finally departed, overwhelming the supposed 

 discovery with his congratulations. How Liais upset his discovery by 

 showing the imaginary Vulcan to be a sun-spot is well known ; and a repe- 

 tition of similar experience recently is said to have left the great astronomer 

 disappoincd and unhappj'. 



Lcverrier's examination of the motion of Venus resulted in tables of 

 wonderful accuracy. He study of the motions of Mars revealed the influence 

 on that planet of the asteroid zone. Summing tip his work, Prof. Proctor 

 says: "Bej'ond question he has deduced from the observed motions of the 

 planets all that at present can be deduced as to the masses of the different 

 known and unknown parts of that complex system which occupies the space 

 ruled over by the sun." 



In 1853, M. Leverrier became Director of the Observatory in Paris, which 

 post he occupied until 1870, when he resigned, but in 1872 he resumed his 

 duties, which he has since continu.ed. He took the greatest interest in the 

 large telescope recently elected at the observatory. "It comes none too 

 soon," he replied coldly, when congratulated on its completion ; and he at 

 once sot to work, hoping by its aid to settle the question of the inter-Mer- 

 curial planet. His labors were severe, his rest broken. The task was too 

 much for a man sixty-six years of age, whose life had been one of incessant 

 toil, and he sank under it. His death occurred on September 23. — Scientific 

 American. 



AMATEUR OBSERVATIONS OF THE NOVEMBER METEORS. 



On the 13th and 14th days of Ifovember, the earth makes its annual 

 passage through the second of the great meteor belts which intersect its 

 orbit. The thickness of this belt at its thickest part is estimated by Prof. 

 Proctor at some 100,000 miles, and it is supposed that the denser portion of 

 the system or "gem of the meteor ring" contains at least one hundred 

 thousand million meteors. These however, Herschel has calculated to be 

 extremely small, rarely exceeding a few ounces in weight. It has further 

 been determined that the November meteors mostly radiate from the con- 

 stellation -Leo, and the aphelion of their orbit is somewhat beyond the 

 planet Uranus. 



Late investigations have pointed to the identity of the orbit of some of 

 the comets with the orbits of different groups of meteors. The path of the 

 meteors, for example, which are usually seen from August 9 to 14, coincides 

 with that of the bright comet of 1862, and both Peters and Schiparelli in- 

 dependentl}'' discovered some time ago that TemjDel's comet of 1866 — a body 

 visible only with the telescope — has elements which may be regarded as 

 absolutely identical with those of the November belt. It is not definitely 



