The New York herald., 1879-11-26

Dasraa showing the paths pursued by sy the or
mcteors OF November 27-2s.
Two circumstances. both of considerable interest.
though only one has hitherto received much atten-
tion have still to be mentioned in relation to the
shower Of November 27 1872. The first is thus
described by Sgnor Denza. who observed the shower
for 81 hours and counted with his fellow workers
less than 49, 400 meteors. This number. he says.
"is far less than the truth. for found it fre-
quently impossible to count them. The maximum
display took place between 7h and Oh. and for 81
minutes between Oh. 35m. and 6h 56m.; the appear
ance in the sky around the radiant point (very
clearly indicated near Gamma Andromeda) was that
Of meteoric cloud The significance Of this phe-
nomenon will be moro clearly recognized when We
consider itin connection with what followed after
the display. The German astronomer Klinkerfucs,
noting that tho great shower had come slantngly
down the earth from the direction of the constea
ton Andromeda, seems to have thought that 1t was
Belas comet itself which had thus passed over the
earth from the north. that after the display it
passed toward the south. nearly toward the star
Theta of the Centaur, which lies opposite Gamma Of
Andromeda. He therefore telegraphed to Mr. Pog-
son, of Madras. "Biela touched earth on November
81; look out for it Theta Centauri." Mr.. Pog-
son did so. and on the morning Of December 8 dis
covered two cloudlike Objects which were found to
be moving athwart the stellar heavens in direction
nearly corresponding to the course of Bieias comet
in that part OF its orbit. 1t somewhat hastily
inferred that what Mr.. Pogson had seen was the
shower of meteors which had passed over the earth
on November o. But closer investigation showed
that neither Of the two objects by Mr.. Pogson
had in reality travelled in the same path the
meteor cluster causing the display OF falling stars.
1t is rather strange that q mathematician so able
as Mr.. Hind. the superintendent of the English
Nautical Almanac" should have adopted the opin-
ion that possibly the cluster OF November 81
may have been Bielas comet ITSELF delayed in some
way twelve weeks 1t Is altogether inconsistent with
the laws of dynamics that body travelling in an
orbit such the orbit Of Belas comet. that is
orbit of short period (for the comet circles three
times round the in twenty years). should be do
layed twelve weeks in SO short time as twenty
years. the interval between the last apparion of the
comet and the year 1872. Certainly any which
could have produced such change must a. the
time have altered the orbit of the comet to
remarkable degree. whereas we eau only associate
the display OF November ~ with Biea's comet at all
by assuming that the mcoors were following in the
unchanged but slightly changed track of that
as admissible the theory that Biela's comet may
have been delayed twelve weeks, but he actually
proceeds to calculate the POSITION OF the comet
entirely unaltercd.
1t is indeed worth noticing that the process by
which mctcoric systems have been formed into a
long train following after comet. but also with
members OF the family travelling in advance OF the
comet has hitherto been satisfactorily indicated.
IL can readily be shown that IL a meteor cluster
were so dispersed that its component parts not
kept In company by their mutual attractions they
could never have been collectively caused by
planetary disturbance to adopt the same general
orbital track. We require some other explanation,
then. than the planetary perturbatons conveniently
called to account tor the actual condition OF many
meteor systems. as. for instance the August SYSTEM
which IL thrown quite round the immense orbit
OF Comet H.. 1862 extending nearly twice as far from
the sun as the orbit of Neptune. ! believe that
when due account is taken of this difficulty IL will
be found that the most feasible explanation Is that
which suggested during my recent course Of loc-
turcs in New York.