The Sun.
London, England, 1865-12-25 00:00:00

THE NOVEMBER METEORS.

At the last meeting of the Physical and Mathe-
matical Section, Mr. E. W. Binney, F.R.S., F.G.S.,
President of the Section, in the chair, a paper was
read on " the November Meteors, as observed at
Woodcroft, Cuckfield, Sussex, Nov. 12-13, 1865,"
by Mr. G. Knott, F.R.A.S., communicated by Mr.
J. Baxendell, F.R.A.S. It was as follows :—The
night of November 12 being fine, Mr. Knott and
myself were enabled to watch under favourable
circumstances for the meteor-shower, of which
warning had been given at the last meeting of the
Royal Astronomical Society. An occasional exa-
mination of the sky during the earlier part of the
night did not reveal a single meteor, but as a syste-
matic watch was not commenced before midnight,
too much weight must not be attached to this cir-
cumstance. Our station commanded a clear view
of the southern half of the horizon, but towards the
north the view was obstructed by the house. Be-
tween 12 and 1 a.m. we counted 39 meteors, giving
an average of rather more than 0.6 per minute ; the
next 55m. added 61 to the number, giving an average
of Fl per minute. After half-an-hour's interval
we resumed our watch at 2.25 a.m. and between
that hour and 3.5 when we ceased observing, we
noted 55 meteors, showing that the average had risen
to 1.4 per minute. The observations of the last 40
minutes showed clearly that the radiant point was
in the immediate vicinity of the star zeta Leonis, or,
perhaps, between that star and epsilon and mu of the
same constellation, the neighbourhood, in fact, of
what the Rev. C. Pritchard happily terms the " apex
of the earth's way." The paths of a few meteors
seemed to suggest a second radiant point in the
neighbourhood of beta Tauri, but the observed
flights were too few to afford satisfactory evidence
on the point. We remarked a strong tendency of
the meteors to occur in groups, four or five, and in
some cases more, appearing one after the other in
quick succession, followed by a lull, during which
none were seen. We did not notice any of very
remarkable brilliancy. They ranged, for the most
part, from that of stars of thefirst magnitude down-
wards, in the majority of instances leaving a train
behind them, which, in several cases, remained visi-
ble for some little time after the main body of the
meteor had disappeared. Among such numbers it
would hardly be possible, in all likelihood, to identify
individuals; I may just notice, however, that at
2h. 42m. 30s. a bright meteor passed precisely over
alpha Orionis, leaving a train which remained visi-
ble for a few seconds, on which the star had the
curious appearance of being threaded. The meteor
passed in the direction of gamma Orionis, its time of
flight being about one second, and the length of its
path, which alpha Orionis was about the middle
point, 10 or 12 degrees. Of course, in the case of
anunpractised observer, these data must of necessity
be very rough, and I much regret that I was not at
the time acquainted with Mr. Herschel's ingenious
alphabetical chronometer. In the last number of the
Abbe Moigno's serial "Les Mondes," I find the fol-
lowing observations by M. Coulvier-Gravier :
" Night of the 12-13 November. First hours of
the night up to four a.m. 237 meteors observed, or
about 29.7 per hour ; from four or five, 96 meteors,
or on the average 1.6 per minute ; from five to six,
43 meteors, or 0.7 per minute." A comparison of
these results with those of our own observations,
would seem to indicate not only that there was no
very material increase in the number of meteors
per minute as the morning advanced, but also
that the display was already on the decline before
daylight put an end to observation. At the same
time it is to be noticed that, according to the obser-
vations of M. Coulvier-Gravier, meteors in more
than average numbers, indeed very considerably so,
were to be seen on the night of the 13-14 Novem-
I ber. He observed, " Although the sky was almost
constantly clouded, 72 meteors appeared, of which
36 appeared between the hours of four and six a.m.
when only 0.2 of the sky was clear." But in any
case, so far as present accounts are concerned, it
would appear that the display this year was by no
means a very extraordinary one. The position of
Mr. Knott's Observatory is lat. 51 deg. 41 secs. N.,
long. 34 secs. W. In the discussion which ensued
Mr. T. Heelis, F.R.A.S., pointed out the advantage
first suggested by Quetelet, in 1841, of recording
not cnly the position of the radiant point, but also
the mean distance from such point at which the
meteors became visible.—Mr. Baxendell concurred
in this, stating that he had himself, in the display
of 1833, noted that the meteors had apparently lain
in at least two strata, each stratum having
its peculiar mean distance of apparition from the
radiant point.—Mr. Heelis also called attention to
the danger which appeared to him to exist of form-
ing a theory of meteors from observations taken
from a one-sided point of view, and urged that as
the observations of M. Coulvier-Gravier, in France,
had led him to the conclusion that all meteors were
atmospheric, whilst the form adopted by the British
Association had been framed by a committee, the
members of which regarded all meteors as cosmical,
each form should in the interests of truth be so far
altered as to enclose, when practicable, not only the
particulars already noted, but also some of the at-
mospheric -...onditions,both at the time of observation
and also at a given time afterwards, which Mr. Bax-
endell suggest should not be less than 24 hours.
Exception was likewise taken to the exclu-
sion, by the members of the committee, of
small meteors from their catalogue.--Mr. Baxen-
dell added that to his mind one of the greatest ob-
jections to the cosmical theory was that the con-
stant deposit during thousands of years of the re-
mains 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 theo-
ries, if pushed to the exclusion of each other, were
wrong.

It is stated that the United States Treasurer has
now on hand in coin $41,718,000, and in currency
$30,162,000. There is at present outstanding $5,545,000
of old certificates, $50,616,000 of new certificates, and
$5,100,000 of coin certificates. In the War and Navy
Departments there is a reduction of over $11,000,000
in November, as compared with those in November,
1864.

The United States Consul at Liverpool, under
date of October 24, 1865, transmits to 'the Department of
State a letter received from Mr. John Walton, an opera-
tive mason of Bradford, Yorkshire, accompanied by two
interlinked stone rings, which he cut out of a solid block
of stone during his leisure hours, in memory of Mr. Lincoln,
which he now presents to President Johnson. The
manufacturer designates these rings as typical of the
American Union, and declares that the union of the
States, with one link in the chain broken, dismembers the
whole. The links bear inscriptions, which combined, as
doubtless intended by the manufacture, readr as follows :
" The Links of Unity." " For the People in North and
South America." The rings have been placed in the
hands of the President.
1'
BREARrAST
.EVE RAGE. —Hoinceopathic practitioners, and
the
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1 'oY l t was
a i
or d
ac n first
o e
tthe most healthful of alt bev,ra,ges. When the doctrine of
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acceptable to e
preparationsduct of cocoa either attrac-
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ot°oPtthe taste
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