202 : Dr. Braopkn’s Account of 
‘Philofophical TraniaGtions they are catled indifcriminately fires 
batts or fiery meteors; and names of a firailar import have 
: been: applied , to them i wi the different, languages | of Eupope ois 
1 dhe mott material Gircumftances, obferved of fuch® rheteors 
may t be brought, under the follo. wing heads. is ‘Their general 
appearaice. 2. Their | path. 3. Their ea or figuie. 4s 
ig light and colours. 5. Their height. 6. Their noife. 
. Their fize. 8. ‘Their duration. | g., ‘Their velocity. 
cy fhall begin with the firtt of ANG meteors, that which was 
feen on the 18th of Auguft. 
§ 1. Its general: appearances in thefe parts sof, Great Britain 
was that of a luminous ball, which rofein the N.N.W. nearly 
round, became elliptical and gradually affimed a*tail"as it 
afeénded, atid in a certain part of its:courfe feemed ‘toCundergo- 
a remarkable change compared to burfting ; afteriwhieh at pro- 
eceded no longer'as ‘ai entire mafs, |but was apparently ‘divided 
into a great number or a clufteriof ‘balls, fomie larger than the 
others, and'all earrying a tail or leaving a train: behind; under 
this form it continued its courfe with a nearly equable motion, 
dropping or cafting off fparks, and yielding a: prodigious dight, 
which illuminated’ all objects toa furprifing: degree ;_ till/having 
pafled the eaft, and verging corifiderably'to the fouthward, it 
aPggae defcended, and at length was loft out of fight...' The 
ee ag SENECA himfelf, though he haa diftinctly enough the difference 
between comets and fiery meteors, yet evidently did not know where to draw the 
line (compare lib. T. and VII, Queft. Natur.). Even in modern tines, thefe:meteors- 
have ftrick fpeétators at firft as comets (Fritzes Medizinifche Annalen, vol. I. 
P+ 77-)5 Day, expert aftronomers, as appears by a letter from NATHANIEL PicorT, 
Efq, F.R. S. lately read ‘arate the Royal Society. See alfo Mem. “de PAc. des: 
Scienc. 1771, p- 688. I have infifted the more on a fubjegt apparently of fo little con= 
fequence, i in order to account for the ftrange opinions of the ancients refpedting 
comets, which, Ithink, proceeded chiefly from confounding them with thefe fiery 
meteors. 
time 
