1838.] 



M, Quetelet on Shooting Stars. 



177 



After this communication of M. Quetelet, M. Sauveur stated, that 

 being on the road from Brussels to Liege in the night of the 8th of 

 last August, he observed a considerable number of shooting stars, of 

 which several were remarkable for their size and brilliancy. 



M. Quetelet suggests that this epoch presents a singular agreement 

 with that of the iOth of August, which the results of observations of 

 shooting stars point out as one of those which are to be remarked for 

 the abundance of meteors of this kind. (See on this subject Brand^s'a 

 Untersuchen ilber die Entfernung und Bahnen der Steimschuppen ; 

 Leipzig, 1825; and Chladni's -Fewer-me/eore, p. 89). 



Wishing to aid in throwing more light on this interesting and yet 

 little known branch of meteorology the Academy has resolved to pro- 

 pose for 1837 a series of observations on shooting stars, 



A.— On the Height, Motion, and Nature of Shooting Stars, 

 By M. Quetelet.* 



Shooting stars, those meteors so long neglected by philosopherSs 

 are beginning at last to engage their attention. We ask ourselves 

 how it happens, that, whilst measuring even to the minutest circum- 

 stances the motion of those heavenly bodies which are at the extre- 

 mity of our solar system, and which, by their very distance, escape 

 the attention of the many, greater thought should not have been be- 

 stowed on a more careful examination of the nature and cause of 

 the numerous appearances of these meteors, which, infinitely nearer 

 to us, streak every night the surface of heaven, and are sometimes 

 seen in such numbers that the heavenly vault would appear to resolve 

 itself into a shower of stars. 



Let us not, however, be in haste to suppose that nothing has been 

 done upon this subject. We might almost be tempted to admit that 

 the sciences also experience the influence and caprice of fashion, and 

 that a certain class of researches can only interest at a certain epoch 

 and under certain circumstances. Shooting stars, which had never 

 been the object of an investigation expressly undertaken, were exa- 

 mined for the first time in a serious manner in 1798, by Benzenberg 

 and Brandes, who examined them during many nights and at many in- 



* From the Annmire cU I' Observatotre deBrmcUes for 1837, 



