1838.] M. Warlmann on the Meteoric Showers of Nov. 1836. 173 



whence the meteoric shower of the 13th of November of 1833 set out, 

 was elevated at a mean height of more than 800 leagues, and conse- 

 quently that it was in a region which affords no aliment for combus- 

 tion. The vivid lustre then which these meteors exhibit, and which 

 they could not borrow from the sun, is their own inherent property. 

 But as in our planetary system we know of no celestial circulating body 

 which shines with its own light, this essential fact, which must neces- 

 sarily be kept in view, sufficiently shows the propriety, I would almost 

 say the necessity, of considering shooting stars as a distinct class of 

 phsenomena. 



In bringing together the different data furnished by observation, 

 and in considering the particular circumstances connected w-ith them, 

 we may be led in some measure to conjecture that the source of this 

 singular phsencmenon is, perhaps, an electric focus, of which the deter- 

 mining cause is not yet known. But we must bear in mind that, in 

 the region of hypothesis, and especially when we treat of a new sub- 

 ject as yet very little studied, analogy alone, whatever verisimilitude it 

 may appear to possess, is not a basis sufficiently sure to found an opi- 

 nion upon. I give this idea, therefore, only as a simple inference. 

 It would, besides, be difficult to rank the shooting stars, which are 

 seen unaccompanied with noise, in the catalogue of aerolites, whose 

 fall, which often happens by day, is generally attended by a hissing in 

 the air, by decrepitation, repeated detonations, and a smell more or 

 less intense. 



According to a communication made last year to the Academy of 

 Sciences of Paris*, M. Millet Daubenton observed on the 13th of 

 November, 1835, at about nine in the evening, the sky being serene, a 

 luminous meteor, having the appearance of an incandescent globe, 

 which exploded in the air and set on fire a barn covered with wood 

 and thatch, near the chateau of Lauzieres, in the department of Ain. 

 M. Millet, according to his own account, is the only observer who saw 

 the immense shower of fire that the meteor formed after bursting. 

 This mere chance, which gave value to his observation, induced him to 

 try if he could not find some stone of an unknown nature near the 

 house and in the surrounding fields, and, indeed, he asserts that he 

 picked up two of the size of a small egg. It is much to be regretted 

 that the Academy after having begged M. Millet to send one of these 

 Specimens that they might ascertain its nature and make an analysis 



* See the Comptes Rendus, vol. i. p. 414. 



