METEORIC STONES AND SHOOTING STABS. 727 



derful and beautiful phenomenon, some meteors showing the most varied 

 and delicate colors ; many were followed by broad and brilliant tracks of 

 fire, very frequently balls of a dazzling white, and with a diameter but 

 little less than that of the moon, were seen. The general aspect was that of 

 a cosmical cloud, which, encountering our atmosphere, was broken in pieces 

 and scattered. The position of the radiant was near (^Gamma) Andromedse. 



Denza considered it a regular periodic shower, the same seen by Brandes 

 7th December, 1798, by Abbe Eaillard December 7, 1830, by Herrick and 

 Flangorgues in 1838, also recognized at Bergamo in 1867. In 1872 its point 

 of contact with the earth's orbit should fall on ISTovember 27-28. 



This shower of November 27, 1872, was also seen at Turin, at Eome, at 

 Palermo, at Naples, at Messina. At Matera, Prof. Yito Eugenio with three 

 assistants counted 38,153 meteors in six hours. The maximum took place 

 everywhere between 8 and 9 o'clock, aiid the radiant was found to be not 

 far from (gamma) Andromedse. 



This display was observed in Egypt and well noted in England. E. J, 

 Lowe, of Nottingham, enumerated 58,660 between 5 h 20' p. m. and 10 h 

 30' p. m., and observed the radiant point to be {gamma) Andromedse. Near 

 the radiant point the meteors were the smallest and had the shortest paths- 

 All had tails, but only the largest were observed to vary in color. Several 

 times during the display reports were heard, resembling that of distant 



shot gUTDS. 



At Athens, Greece, about 25,000 were counted during nine hours, and 

 Dr. Schmidt stated, that while the shower of November 13, 1866, was re- 

 markable for its brilliancy, its numerous bolides, the slenderness and bright- 

 ness of the trains and preponderance of green colors, that of November 

 27, 1872, was entirely different, the stars were chiefly faint with broad 

 smokelike trains and colors between white and reddish yellow, and motion 

 apparently slow and undecided, f 



This shower of November 27th was also observed at numerous stations 

 in the United States, beginning on the 24th, but there were not so many 

 counted. Their point of radiance was from {gamma) Andromedse. 



Old Lusatian <^hronicles report that on 3d December, 1565, there fell at 

 Soran fire from heaven like flakes of snow. % 



Prof. Newton II supposes that the meteoric showers were at one time all 

 connected with periodic comets and the scattering took place at or near 

 their perihelion. A startling telegram from Prof. Klinkerfues on the night 

 of November 30th, 1872, ran thus: Biela touched the earth on the 27th. 

 Astronomers state that in 1872 Biela's comet disintegrated and appeared as 

 a star shower. Prof. Newton§ gives data showing that the November star 

 shower has a motion along the siderial year of one day in seventy years, 

 and the dates of the earlier showers show that the true period does not 

 widely differ from the siderial year. 



f American Journal, February, 1873. 



J American Journal, May, 1863. || American Journal, January, 1873. g American Journal. July 



and September, 1863. 



