The November Meteors. 373 



development and maintenance ; but it must not therefore, as 

 we said before, be supposed that it is altogether the result of 

 organization, for death may occur without any trace of organic 

 lesion to account for it. Nevertheless, the extent of organiza- 

 tion necessary to the enjoyment of life is apparently very small 

 indeed. A simple cell constitutes the entire organism of such 

 plants as the Chlamydococcus or the Palmella cruenta, or even 

 an animal, as the Amoeba, and in these and such like simple 

 structures resides a vital principle on which its integrity 

 depends. But whatever the extent of organization may be, 

 its perfection is essential and necessary to the maintenance of 

 life ; for, as we now know, the seed which has been dormant a 

 thousand years will, if its organization be perfect, spring into 

 activity when planted; but if crushed, its living principle is 

 destroyed, and it will no longer germinate. Thus it is exem- 

 plified that to those minds familiarized with the phenomena of 

 life, as manifested by the simpler organisms, the microscope 

 " is not the mere extension of a faculty, it is a new sense." 



THE NOVEMBER METEORS. 



BY HENRY J. SLACK, F.G.S., 

 Hon. Sec. Eoyal Microscopic Society. 



On the night of the 1 2—1 3th November the anticipated meteors 

 were magnificently seen from my house in Camden Square, N.W. 

 Occasionally mist and cloud drifted across the clear sky, but no 

 large portion was obscured at anytime between 11 p.m. and 

 3^ a.m., and when the interrupting vapours came, they were 

 generally thin enough to allow the stars to peer through. At 

 just about llh. 8m. p.m. a magnificent fire-ball as bright as- 

 Jupiter passed over Betelguese and under Bellatrix in a nearly 

 horizontal path. It had a beautiful greenish train, with undula- 

 ting smoke-like edges. At (about) 11.37 a reddish meteor 

 shot upwards under Mars, with a train lasting half a second. 

 At (about) 11.41 another meteor shooting upwards, vanished 

 near Castor; and at (about) 1 1 .48 a very fine one appeared 

 under Rigel, slightly sloping to the south, and displaying a 

 yellow and green train ; the train of this meteor was of a 

 character frequently seen later in the night. The margins were 

 like fine gold dust, and the centre a singularly beautiful pale 

 emerald green. The golden yellow might be called between 

 three and four of Admiral Smyth's scale, and the green though 

 more emerald in hue, between the same numbers of his greens. 



