Periodic Meteors, or supposed Asteroids: 



[Jan. 



of it, has as yet kept silence respecting the examination of this 

 meteoric product so interesting by its date. 



Although thirty-seven years have passed since the 1 2th of Novem- 

 ber, 1799, the time when MM. Humboldt and Bonpland saw, at 

 Curaana, a very unusual appearance of shouting stars which greatly 

 excited their attention, our stock of knowledge respecting the cause 

 and nature of this majestic phcenomenon has remained very incom- 

 plete. 



^Vithout doubt we have yet to bring together many facts, to gather 

 many observations, to arrange them, to discuss them, in order to obtain 

 a definitive solution of the problem. Recently, MM. Olmsted, Arago, 

 Biot and oiher illustrious philosophers have been occupied with this 

 interesting subject*. They have furnished ingenious ideas and fresh 

 views, by which science will profit. It is true that some diversities 

 are observable in the hypoth'^.-sis which they have advanced, but 

 these documents are not themselves the less to be prized and pre- 

 served. Who knows, but that the light, to the investigation of which 

 every one earnestly applies, may not one day spring from the clashing 

 of opinions ? 



3. — On the questiomvhether Shooting Stars are more numerous at cer- 

 tain times than at others. By M. QuETELET.f 



M. Quetelet informed the Academy that during the night of the 12th 

 of November he employed himself at the observatory of the city in 

 noticing the shooting stars, for the purpose of ascertaining, whether 

 in fact, their appearance were more frequent than at another season. 

 His observations presented nothing remarkable as to the number of 

 these meteors. 



We remember that M. Arago, in giving to the Academy of Sciences 

 at Pans an account of the results of the numerous observations which 



* See the article on shooting stars by Professor Olmsted in the American Journal of 

 Science, or the French translation in vol. iii. of the Compilateur, October 1836, page 32 ; 

 the notices of MM. Arago and Biot in the Comptes Rcndus des Seances de V Academie 

 des Sciences de Paris, vol. iii. pp. .'.60, 629, 663 ; a notice by Professor Gautier, in the 

 Bihl. Univ., vol. li. p. 189, &c. 



i- From rinstitut, and originally derived from the Bulletin, do VAcad. Royale dc 

 Bruxelles. 



