1 For a full description, see Silliman's Journal for January and April, 1834 (Prof. Olmsted's article). Also a valuable paper, in the July No. of the same year, by Prof. Twining.

2 Physique du Globe, Chap. IV.

3 Professor Olmsted estimated the number of meteors, visible at New Haven, during the night of November 12th–13th, 1833, at 240,000.

4 Conde says, "there were seen, as it were lances, an infinite number of stars, which scattered themselves like rain to the right and left, and that year was called 'the year of stars.'"

5 In 1202, "on the last day of Muharrem, stars shot hither and thither in the heavens, eastward and westward, and flew against one another like a scattering swarm of locusts, to the right and left; this phenomenon lasted until daybreak; people were thrown into consternation, and cried to God the Most High with confused clamor."—Quoted by Prof. Newton, in Silliman's Journal, May, 1864.

6 Am. Journ. of Sci. and Arts, May and July, 1864.

7 The stream or arc of meteors is several years in passing its node. The first indication of the approach of the display of 1866 was the appearance of meteors in unusual numbers at Malta, on the 13th of November, 1864. The great length of the arc is indicated, moreover, by the showers of 931 and 934.

8 Silliman's Journ. for Sept. and Nov., 1861.

9 The numerical results here given are those found by Professor Newton. See Silliman's Journ. for March, 1865.

10 The diameters of the asteroids are derived from a table by Prof. Lespiault, in the Rep. of the Smithsonian Inst. for 1861, p. 216.

11 "It appears probable, from the researches of Schreibers, that 700 fall annually."—Cosmos, vol. i. p. 119 (Bohn's Ed.). Reichenbach makes the number much greater.

12 New Concord is close to the Guernsey County line. Nearly all the stones fell in Guernsey.

13 Cosmos, vol. i. p. 120.

14 Leverrier's Annals of the Observatory of Paris, vol. i. p. 38.

15 "This is a remarkable example of a stone arriving on the earth with a temperature approaching that of the interplanetary spaces. Aerolites containing much iron, a substance which conducts heat well, get thoroughly heated by their passage through the atmosphere. But the stony aerolites, containing less iron, conducting heat badly, preserve in their interior the temperature of the locality from which they fall; their surface only is heated, and generally fused. When the stones are large, the excessive cold of their interior portion, which must be nearly that of interplanetary space, is remarked; but when small, they remain hot for some time."—Dr. Phipson.

16 Silliman's Journal, September, 1864.

17 The same explanation is given by T.M. Hall, F.G.S., in the Popular Science Review for Oct. 1866.

18 This list contains nothing but aerolites. In the Edinburgh Review for January, 1867, we find the following statements: "Out of the large number of authentic aerolites preserved in mineralogical collections, two only—one on the 10th of August, and one on the 13th of November—are recorded to have fallen on star-shower dates. On the other hand, five or six meteorites, on the epoch of the 13th–14th of October, belong to a date when star-showers, so far as is at present known, do not make their appearance." The inaccuracy of the former statement is sufficiently apparent. In regard to the latter we remark that Quetelet's Catalogue gives one star-shower on the 14th of October, and another on the 12th.

19 The date of this remarkable occurrence is worthy of note as a probable aerolite epoch. From the 12th to the 15th of March we have the following falls of meteoric stones:

• 1. 1731, March 12th. At Halstead, Essex, England.
• 2. 1798, March 12th. At SalÉs, France.
• 3. 1806, March 15th. At Alais, France.
• 4. 1807, March 13th. At Timochin, Russia.
• 5. 1811, March 13th. At Kuleschofka, Russia.
• 6. 1813, March 13th–14th. The phenomena above described.
• 7. 1841, March 12th. At GrÜneberg, Silesia.

Numerous fire-balls have appeared at the same epoch.

20 The innermost or semi-transparent ring of Saturn appears to be similarly constituted, as the body of the planet is seen through it without any distortion whatever.

21 Origin of the Stars, p. 173.

22 Origin of the Stars, p. 184.

23 Since the above was written Prof. Ennis has informed the author that, without making any estimate of his own, he adopted the density of Jupiter's first satellite as given in Lardner's Handbook of Astronomy.

24 Origin of the Stars, p. 77.

25 Youman's Correlation and Conservation of Forces, p. 244.

26 Iowa Instructor and School Journal for November, 1866, p. 49.

27 A recent hypothesis in regard to the temporary star of 1572 has been proposed by Alexander Wilcocks, M.D., of Philadelphia. See Journ. Acad. Nat. Sci. of Phila. for 1859.

28 Gautier's Notice of Recent Researches relating to NebulÆ.—Silliman's Journal for Jan. 1863, and March, 1864.

29 Outlines of Astronomy, Art. 442.

30 A learned and highly interesting examination of this hypothesis will be found in a memoir "On the Secular Variations and Mutual Relations of the Orbits of the Asteroids," communicated to the Am. Acad. of Arts and Sciences, April 24th, 1860, by Simon Newcomb, Esq.

31 For an explanation of the origin of the asteroids according to the nebular hypothesis, see an article by David Trowbridge, A.M., in Silliman's Journal for Nov. 1864, and Jan. 1865.

32 H.C. Sorby, F.R.S.

33 Harte's Trans. of Laplace's Syst. of the World, vol. ii., note vii.

34 Grant's Hist. of Phys. Astr., p. 302.

35 Nos. 1632 and 1633.