METEORS. 91 
'ducted, to indicate that they were instituted for any other purpose than that above 
suggested — verification of the ancient work, and adjustment of the standard for 
the particular purpose in view at the time. Neither is it apparent that in any of 
them, the Babylonian degree was either used or its dimension sought (except 
possibly as to Ptolemy), or that the Egyptian foot, whatever it may have been, 
or the Philetgerian foot or the Greek stadium were used or referred to at all, or 
that the geodetic work had any other fundamental base than the ancient public 
surveys of Egypt, familiar to the learned throughout the whole period of opera- 
tions, and unquestionably made with the schoenus. And this view is confirmed 
by Eratosthenes' definition of amplitude, as quoted by Prof. Merriman — -^-j^ of 4 
right angles — a decidedly decimal expression as well as by the general ancient 
preference for the decimal method. 
The English mile, by its dimension, suggests with strong probability that it 
•was at first either equal to 1751 yards, representing the survey of Eratosthenes, 
or else 1824, like the Turkish mile, the itinerary of Posidonias; and that it took 
its present form at the time the English forced the 36-inch yard into their land 
measure, by means of the invention of Gunter's chain. The former is the more 
probable of the two. — VanNosirand's Magazine. 
ASTRONOMY. 
METEORS. 
R. J. m'cARTY. 
History records many instances of the fall of masses of stone, iron, and other 
substances from the higher regions of the atmosphere. Until the beginning of the 
present century these records were regarded by many as either entirely mythical 
or based upon some events entirely susceptible of explanation from local causes, 
so that there was hardly sufficient faith in the fact to stimulate the philosopher to 
search for the cause. But when on April 26, 1803, near L'Aigle in Normandy, 
a shower of stones followed the explosion of a fiery globe which rushed with great 
velocity over that region, and when this fact was officially verified by a commis- 
sion of the French Government, there was left no room for doubt that meteoric 
light is often followed by the precipitation of matter to the earth. 
From observations made of the instants of appearance and disappearance of 
the light and of the position of its path with re:spect to the stars, astronomers 
have been able to calculate that the source of meteoric light lies always within 
the limits of the atmosphere and that the velocity of the meteor varies from sev- 
enteen to thirty-six miles per second. 
