[CONCLUSION.]
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: