80 
POPULAR SCIENCE REVIEW. 
ASTRONOMY. 
At last we have seen a real star-shower ! The scene described with such 
force by Humboldt in his Personal Narrative has been made intelligible to 
us, although at the same time it is clear that the recent display was, after all, 
only a mere indication of the brilliancy of those of 1799 and 1833. Still we 
have seen enough to validate the theory of Olmsted, to endorse the admirable 
investigation of Newton, and to disconnect for ever meteors from Meteorology. 
From this point of view it is extremely satisfactory to learn that the Royal 
Astronomical Society have taken steps to obtain a complete discussion of the 
observations as soon as possible. The world has been so meteor-mad lately 
that it will hardly brook the delay that must take place before the Luminous 
Meteor Committee of the British Association make their report at the next 
meeting at Dundee. 
The December meeting of the Royal Astronomical Society was taken up 
entirely with what we may look upon as a preliminary investigation. Two 
very important facts 'came out. The first was that the spectroscopic obser- 
vations were without result ; the second, that Professor Adams, from his own 
observations this year, has arrived at almost the same conclusions as Newton, 
whose data were derived from the records of previous showers, commencing 
a.d. 902, the account in that year running as follows : — 11 In the year 599 
(a.h.) on the last day of Muharram, stars shot hither and thither, and flew one 
against another, like a swarm of locusts ; this phenomenon lasted until day- 
break ; people were thrown into consternation, and made importunate sup- 
plications to God the Most High ; there was never the like seen except on 
the coming out of the Messenger of God — on whom be benediction and 
peace.” 
Let us briefly, in the first instance, state the theory. It is now known that 
the bodies, which, when they enter our atmosphere, give rise to the appear- 
ances of falling stars and meteors, are so numerous that there are 13,000 of 
them in each part of space as large as our earth ; and that, could all which 
enter our atmosphere in a period of twenty-four hours — including those 
visible in a powerful telescope— be counted, they would number not less than 
400,000,000. There is ground for supposing, however, that in the main these 
little bodies are congregated into rings, each particle of the ring revolving 
like a planet round the sun. 
The November ring is so situated in space that it cuts our orbit at the 
point occupied by our planet on November 14. This is the descending node 
of the ring. Where the other node lies, we do not exactly know ; we only 
know that it does not cut our orbit ; if it did, another star-shower would 
occur in May. We have, however, possibly another kind of proof of the ex- 
istence of the node, not far within our orbit, in the almost^constant retro- 
gression of the temperature about May 12, which has been ascribed to the 
bodies composing the ring cutting oft' the sun’s heat from'us. 
Similarly, one of the nodes of the August ring is situated in the point of 
the earth’s orbit occupied by our planet on August 10. The November ring, 
according to Newton, is inclined to the plane of the ecliptic, at an angle 
of 17° or 19 ° ; the August one at an angle of 79° or so. 
Now, the fact that the early records state the shower to have occurred in 
