*
[footnote] *Bessel, in Schum., 'Astr. Nachr.', 1839, No 389 und 381, s. 222
und 346. At the conclusion of the Memoir there is a comparison of the Sun's
longitudes with the epochs of the November phenomenon, from the period of
the first observations in Cumana in 1799,
The opinion advanced by Olbers that the explosion of shooting stars and
ignited fire-balls not moving in straight lines may impel meteors upward in
the manner of rockets, and influence the direction of their orbits, must be
made the subject of future researches.
Shooting stars fall either seprately and in inconsiderable numbers, that is,
sporadically, or in swarms of many thousands.
p 124
The latter, which are compared by Arabian authors to swarms of locusts, are
periodic in their occurrence, and move in streams, generally in a parallel
direction. Among periodic falls, the most celebrated are that known as the
November phenomenon, occurring from about the 12th to the 14th of November,
and that of the festival of St. Lawrence (the 10th of August), whose "fiery
tears" were noticed in former times in a church calendar of England, no less
than in old traditionary legends, as a meteorological event of constant
recurrence.*
[footnote] *Dr. Thomas Forster ('The Pocket Encyclopedia of Natural
Phenomena' 1827, p.
Pages:
233
234
235
236
237
238
239
240
241
242
243
244
245
246
247
248
249
250
251
252
253
254
255
256
257