59 
practicable, not only the particulars already noted, but also 
some of the atmospheric conditions, both at the time of 
observation and also at a given time afterwards, which Mr. 
Baxendell suggested should not be less than 24 hours. 
Exception was likewise taken to the exclusion, by the 
members of the committee, of small meteors from their 
catalogue. 
Mr. Baxendell added that to his mind one of the greatest 
objections to the cosmical theory was that the constant deposit 
during thousands of years of the remains of meteors upon the 
surface of the earth, had not altered the time of diurnal 
rotation. 
The general opinion of the section appeared to be that no 
one origin ought to be exclusively assigned to meteors, and 
that both the cosmical and atmospheric theories, if pushed to 
the exclusion of each other, were wrong. 
Mr. Baxendell referring to his paper “ On the Variable 
Star S Delphini” (see page 28) read the following extract of 
a letter he had received from Mr. Knott : — 
“ I was much interested in your remarks on our different 
modes of drawing the light-curves of variable stars. You 
were quite correct in your statement that I have been in 
the habit of regarding deviations from an even curve as due 
mainly to errors of observation. I have, however, recently 
felt that this hypothesis was not quite a satisfactory one, 
and have been on the point of broaching the question to 
you once or twice ; and the recent projection of observations 
of R Vulpeculse has strongly confirmed my suspicions. I 
enclose a projection of my observations of this star for the 
last maximum and minimum. You will at once see the 
marked dislocation in the ascending curve. An even curve 
would give an apparent error of observation on August 24 
amounting to about half a magnitude; yet my light estimates 
* on that day were R Vulpeculse=e+2==/=y — 3, the magni- 
tudes of the comparison stars being 9'5, 9-7, and 10-0, and 
