156 Intelligence and Miscellaneous Articles. 



cease immediately on the cessation of the passage of the current 

 through the conductor, but disappears by degrees *. — Poggendorff 's 

 Annalen, 1866, No. 9, p. 15 j Bibl. Univ. Nov. 25, 1866, p. 269. 



ON THE METEORIC SHOWER OF 1866, NOV. 13-14. 

 BY SIR J. F. W. HERSCHEL, BART. 



During the superb display of meteors on the night of the 13th 

 inst. my attention was particularly directed to the determination of 

 the exact situation in the heavens of the Radiant-point of their 

 courses, which lias been commonly stated to be coincident with that 

 of the bright star y Leonis. This, however, was certainly not the 

 case; and I am enabled to say with. perfect confidence that their 

 courses diverged, with a very remarkable degree of agreement, from 

 a point considerably higher in declination and less advanced in 

 right ascension — nearly intermediate between £ and e, but a little 

 below their line of junction and somewhat above the place of the 

 star marked x in Bode's Chart. Having fixed this point well in my 

 recollection, on laying down its place on that chart next morning, 

 I found its longitude for 1 866 ^ (allowing 55' for precession since 

 1801, the epoch of the chart) to be 142° 20', and its latitude 10° 15' 

 north. Several circumstances enabled me to fix on this point with 

 full assurance of its being the true radiant : first, the frequent out- 

 shooting from a very near proximity to it, and once in several 

 different directions, of a volley of meteors ; secondly, on two or 

 three distinct occasions a meteor appeared in this very point, and in 

 all these cases it was motionless, devoid of a train, and on its ex- 

 tinction left only a small nebulous light to mark the place of its 

 appearance ; thirdly, on one occasion a meteor shot forth horizon- 

 tally at a distance of about 6 or 8 degrees from the radiant, and 

 disappeared after running a very short course, leaving a vaporous 

 train which continued visible (fading gradually away) for 2 m 40 s 

 (this afforded time for tracing back the direction of the train, which 

 did not alter), and its course, continued, passed through the spot in 

 question. 



The longitude of the Earth, as seen from the Sun at midnight of 

 the 13th, was 51° 25', which subtracted from 142° 10' leaves 90° 45', 

 whereas, were y Leonis the radiant, the difference would have 

 been 96° 10', indicating an angle of 6° 10' between the tangent to 



* As early as 1841 Professor Wartmann showed that "the direction of 

 an electric current influences the facility of its passage through various 

 metals, merely by reason of the peculiar arrangement which it at once 

 impresses on the patticles of the conductor. When the current endea- 

 vours to pass in the opposite direction, it commences by depolarizing 

 these ; and hence a loss of its own intensity ; then it gives them an oppo- 

 site polarity, which again offers it a free passage. These effects diminish in 

 energy in proportion as they are repeated " (Archives cVElectricite, vol. i. 

 p. 88). In 1853 he showed that the passage of electricity through rati- 

 fied gases determines in them a polarization which facilitates discharges 

 at distances insuperable but by its aid (Archives des Sci. Phys, vol. xxii. 

 p. 268). 



