Some of the prominent results of observation and research in meteoric astronomy may be summed up as follows:

1. The shooting-stars of November, August, and other less noted epochs, are derived from elliptic rings of meteoric matter which intersect the earth's orbit.

2. Meteoric stones and the matter of shooting-stars coexist in the same rings; the former being merely collections or aggregations of the latter.

3. The most probable period of the November meteors is thirty-three years and three months. Leverrier's elements of this ring agree so closely with Oppolzer's elements of the comet of 1866 as to render it probable that the latter is merely a large meteor belonging to the same annulus.

4. The spectroscopic examination of this comet (of 1866) by William Huggins, F.R.S., indicated that the nucleus was self-luminous, that the coma was rendered visible by reflecting solar light, and that "the material of the comet was similar to the matter of which the gaseous nebulÆ consist."

5. The time of revolution of the August meteors is believed to be about 105 years. M. Schiaparelli has found a striking similarity between the elements of this ring and those of the third comet of 1862. The same distinguished astronomer has shown, moreover, that a nebulous mass of considerable extent, drawn into the solar system ab extra, would form a ring or stream.

6. The aerolitic epochs, established with more or less certainty, are the following:

1. February 15th–19th.
2. March 12th–15th.
3. April 10th–12th.
4. April 18th–26th.
5. May 8th–14th; or especially, 12th–13th.
6. May 19th.
7. July 13th–14th.
8. July 26th.
9. August 7th–11th.
10. October 13th–14th.
11. November 11th–14th.
12. November 27th–30th.
13. December 7th–13th.

About one-half of this number are also known as shooting-star epochs.

7. The epoch of November 27th–30th corresponds with that of the earth's crossing the orbit of Biela's two comets. The aerolites of this epoch may therefore have been moving in nearly the same path.

8. A greater number of aerolitic falls are observed—

1. By day than by night.
2. In the afternoon than in the forenoon.
3. When the earth is in aphelion than when in perihelion.

The first fact is accounted for by the difference in the number of observers; the second indicates that a majority of aerolites have direct motion; and the third is dependent on the relative lengths of the day and night in the aphelic and perihelic portions of the orbit.

9. The observed velocities of meteorites are incompatible with the theory of their lunar origin.

10. If the meteoric swarm of November 14th has a period of thirty-three years, Biela's comet passed very near, if not actually through it toward the close of 1845, about the time of the comet's separation. Was the division of the cometary mass produced by the encounter?

11. The rings of Saturn may be regarded as dense meteoric masses, and the principal or permanent division accounted for by the disturbing influence of the interior satellites.

12. The asteroidal space between Mars and Jupiter is probably a wide meteoric ring in which the largest aggregations are visible as minor planets. In the distribution of the mean distances of the known members of the group a clustering tendency is quite obvious.

13. The meteoric masses encountered by Encke's comet may account for the shortening of the period of the latter without the hypothesis of an ethereal medium.