— 25 — 



a little less than unity, and the motion direct. The position would 

 be 90" before the sun at the middle time". 



C'est ici le cas très rare où on doit attendre d'avance une 

 durée assez conside'rable du courant, quoique aussi il faut con- 

 sulter la théorie par rapport à la largeur admissible de l'anneau 

 d'orbites des météores, qu'il peut avoir au périhélie. 



M. Denning fait la note suivante (Obs. *) 1887, p. 66): „20 ra- 

 diants observed between Sept. 15 and Jan. 15 give a mean place 

 at 107 "h- 11 ".5, but no one can say how many different stre- 

 ams are involved in the lengthy sustenance of the radiant, and 

 we are equally ignorant as to their individual periods". 



En parlant d'un radiant du mois d'août, dont la position est 

 202"-i-70^ M. Denning ajoute (Obs. 1886, p. 331): „The 

 display is evidenty one of fairly pronounced character, though it 

 seems impossible to limit it to a brief epoch; there may be se- 

 veral showers succeding each other from the same point". 



Dans une Note de M. Denning (L. A. S. ') 1883, p. 34} nous 

 trouvons l'opinion suivante: „The question of duration in meteor 

 streams requires much further elucidation, as some important 

 points of theory are involved. The number of showers is so vast, 

 however, that the greatest accuracy attainable in such observa- 

 tions, and very long continued watches of the sky, are rendered 

 imperative". 



M. Corder (L. A. S. 1883, p. 50) en parlant des Museides et 

 Taurides s'exprime ainsi: „At the same time I consider our know- 

 ledge of this complex shower to be in a very rudimentary state; 

 for during last autumn I made many observations, and at first 

 decided the two were separate, and then felt inclined to reckon 

 them as one again. The question to be solved is, whether the 

 radiant shifts, night after night, to a point further last, or whe- 

 ther the real Taurids break out at the beginning of November 

 quite irrespective of the Muscids". 



M. Denning exprime l'opinion suivante sur le même sujet (ibid. 

 p. 61): „It is unquestionable that these contemporary systems pre- 

 sent difficulties as regards their positions and durations. They 

 each appear to hover about a certain general area, without main- 

 taining an exact and well defined centre of divergence; and, as 

 regards numbers, they show an equally curious distribution, for 



') The observatory, a Monthly Review of Astronomy. 

 *) Liverpool Astronomical Society. 



