50 Messrs. J. A. Wanklyn and R. R. F. Davey on 



should by this time give all the phenomena of the November 

 meteors. Its previous orbit might have been an ellipse, a para- 

 bola, or an hyperbola. Its motion might even have been direct 

 in an elliptic or parabolic orbit. 



In the course of ( future time, he argues, the phenomena will 

 extend over a larger and larger number of consecutive years, di- 

 minishing at the same time in intensity. But no change in 

 perihelion distance will make them disappear entirely. Even if 

 this group again meets Uranus, the planet can act only upon a 

 part of its matter, and cannot throw it all into a new orbit as 

 Jupiter did the comet of Lexell. 



These reasonings of Schiaparelli and Le Verrier have certainly 

 great force, and make it probable that of the five possible peri- 

 odic times of the November meteors that of 33*25 years is the 

 true one. The strongest objection to this conclusion is that the 

 radiant in November does not seem to be a point, but rather a 

 small area. This area cannot be of great breadth in latitude, since 

 the ring is only twenty-five or fifty thousands of miles in thick- 

 ness. If, as observations seem to require, the radiant extends in 

 longitude two or three degrees only, then the lines of apsides of 

 the orbits of the several members of the group differ considerably. 

 In this case it is more reasonable to suppose the orbits themselves 

 grouped about an exact circle than about a long ellipse. 



If upon examination it shall be found that the centre of the 

 radiant area was decidedly more or less than 89^° from the sun on 

 the morning of the 14th of November last, then this objection 

 will lose much of its force. Again, if there shall not be seen on 

 the morning of May 12, 1867, between 1 o'clock and dawn, a 

 few scattering members of the November group, radiating from 

 a point 180° from Leo, this also will tend, to a certain extent, 

 to strengthen SchiaparehVs reasonings. 



VI. Observations on Sir Benjamin Brodie's "Ideal Chemistry" 

 By J. A. Wanklyn and R. R. F. Davey*. 



SIR B. BRODIE read a paper before the Royal Society last 

 year " On the Calculus of Chemical Operations." As will 

 be gathered from the paper, which will be found in the Philoso- 

 phical Transactions for 1866, p. 781, it claimed to inaugurate a 

 new era in chemical philosophy. The Chemical Society was 

 specially invited to attend the Meeting of the Royal Society at 

 which the paper was read. A year afterwards (i. e. quite* re- 

 cently) Sir B. Brodie propounded the doctrines of " Ideal Che- 

 mistry" to one of the largest Meetings of the Chemical Society. 



* Communicated bv the Authors. 



