568 KANSAS CITY REVIEW OF SCIENCE. 
afterwards disappeared, leaving no trace of itself except a brilliant swarm of meteors, 
which came dashing out of the northern sky on the track of the lost comet in 
1872. The earth crossed the orbit of this comet, which is believed to have been 
converted into a mass of meteors, on last Tuesday, the very day on which the 
most brilliant sunset spectacle was beheld here. At first sight this coincidence 
in time seems to lend strong support to the suggestion that the remains of Biela's 
comet furnished the meteoric matter from which the sun's rays were reflected in 
the higher regions of the atmosphere. But the apparent confirmation disappears 
when it is recollected that in California the same appearance was presented a 
week, and in England more than two weeks, before the earth reached the comet's 
path. Moreover, the meteors seen by Prof. Brooks, and those which for several 
weeks have attracted attention both in this country and in Europe, did not belong 
to the Biela swarm, which always approaches from a particular point in the 
northern heavens. It appears, then, that if an unusual quantity of meteoric dust 
has recently entered our atmosphere from outer space, it has come, not from any 
one of the several swarms of meteors which make their appearance at regular 
intervals, but from meteors which the earth does not regularly encounter, or per- 
haps from a cloud of mere cosmic dust. 
Soon after the comet of 181 2 was detected returning sunward last September, 
it exhibited a wonderful outburst of light, accompanied by an equally surprising 
and sudden increase of size. Later it faded again, and since then it has behaved 
in a normal manner, and is now just visible to the naked eye approaching the 
Sun. The appearances it presented in September suggested that it had had a 
collision with some other body, producing a sudden flare of light and expansion 
of volume, owing to the heat developed. In view of the evidence that the region 
of space through which the earth is now advancing abounds in meteoric masses, 
it is a curious question whether, if the comet had a collision, it did not run into 
a swarm of meteors. — N. Y. Sun, 
DISCOVERY OF ASTEROID PALISA (235). 
A cable dispatch has received last night, at Harvard College Observatory, 
announcing the discovery of a small planet, by Palrsa, at Vienna. Its position 
was » 
Greenwich M. T. . — R.A. — . , Decl.— n 
H. M. H. M. S. ° ' 
1883. November 28. 13 20 3 19 14 -^ 15 52 17 
Daily motion in R. A. — 48s.; in Declination o. It is of the twelfth magnitude. 
The planet was readily identified at Harvard College Observatory, and was 
observed by Mr. Wendell, as follows : 
Cambridge M. T. , — R.A. — ^ , — Deck — s 
H. M. H. M. S, o ^ 
November 30. 9 30 3 17 27 -j- 15 51. i 
— Science Observer Special Circular No. 42. 
