METEORS OF NOVEMBER AND AUGUST. II3 



more rare than the thinnest clouds that float in the upper regions of the atmos- 

 phere. Should future observations establish on a firmer basis the general facts 

 contained in the preceding tables, and thus warrant the opinion, that these small 

 masses are much more closely aggregated together in the vicinity of the sun, 

 then the theory which I have proposed, and that of the resisting medium will 

 mutually strengthen each other. It may be further remarked, that should this 

 theory of shooting stars be found to explain all their known phenomena, and to 

 explain some portion of the resistance encountered by Encke's comet, an answer 

 would be furnished to some interesting inquiries, by Sir J. F. W. Herschel in 

 his Astronomy, page 310th, note. "What is the law of density of the resisting 

 medium which surrounds the sun? Is it at rest or in motion? If the latter, 

 in what direction does it move? Circularly round the sun, or traversing space? 

 If circularly in what plane?" To these it would be answered, that the resistance 

 is owing in part, at least, to the comet's meeting in its course an immense number 

 of these small masses, each of which is pursuing its own orbit in a conic sec- 

 tion round the sun, disturbed by the other planets, and by the meteors in its 

 vicinity. That the law of their aggregation is unknown for reasons already 

 mentioned; but that we have reason to suppose that the individual bodies retain 

 their relative position or configuration by the general law of gravity, and not 

 by any such law as that which regulates the relative position of the particles 

 of an elastic fluid, or liquid, usually understood by the word medium. 



I have thus discussed one feature of the present theory, namely, the gradual 

 aggregation of these bodies in approaching the sun. I shall now suggest ano- 

 ther, derived from the distribution of matter in the siderial heavens, of which 

 the planetary space forms a part. This portion of space is continually changing, 

 if the solar system, as was supposed by Herschel, and proved since by Arge- 

 lander," has a proper motion in space. According to the opinion of Laplace, 

 new portions of matter formerly revolving round that central body, or group, 

 whose sphere of activity was greatest, must, in consequence of the motion of 

 our system in space, be continually falling within the sun's sphere of attrac- 

 tion, and forming comets, asteriods, or planets. It is only necessary to extend 

 the theory a little farther to include the small shooting stars, aerolithes, or aste- 

 roids. Now we notice in the heavens that matter is not uniformly distributed, 



"7 Astr. Nachr., No. 363. 

 VIII. — 2 D 



