regain their tone, and equilibrium is restored. More severe attacks require hot-water applications to the extremities, hot tea or coffee by mouth, alcoholic stimulants, or even ergot or adrenalin. Massage and heat, and sometimes rectal injections of plain hot (110°-115° F.) water, or hot salt water (1 teaspoonful of salt to pint of water) are very useful in extreme

cases.

SHOCK ABSORBERS. Even when vehicle springs have been carefully selected with due regard to the loads they are to carry, it is difficult to provide against the many variations in loads and speed that necessarily obtain under conditions of actual service. In automobiles especially it is found that a car which rides easily on good roads often proves decidedly uncomfortable on rough roads because the light springs cause the riders to be jostled about at any but the slowest rate of speed. To aid the springs and effect a compromise, shock absorbers have been devised. They are of various designs and are all intended to supplement the action of the vehicle springs. Two general divisions of absorbers may be noted, however, those which receive shocks caused by a sudden deflection of the spring and those which merely check excessive motion of the spring by what may be considered a variety of brake action. A very simple form of absorber is a rubber pad carried by a clip and attached at the centre of the spring, where on the chassis is fixed a bolt or bracket which, upon the sudden deflection of the spring, rests the frame and load upon the rubber buffer or pad. Another form of absorber is the auxiliary spring, usually a spiral, and designed to operate in conjunction with the main springs. Its function is to retard excessive motion of the latter. Absorbers of the brake action type consist usually of a pair of levers hinged together at one end and the other end attached to chassis and spring, respectively. A variety of this form has a cup and cam hinge, with steel springs inserted in the cup and pushing against the cam. Other designs of absorber consist of cylinders filled with oil and fitted with a piston and plunger rod. One member of these cylinder absorbers is of course attached to the frame or chassis while the other is attached to the axle. The piston acts as a check to any rapid movement of the plunger rod.

SHOE. See BOOTS AND SHOES; SHOE INDUSTRY IN THE UNITED STATES.

SHOE-BILLED STORK, or WHALEHEAD, a large stork (Balaniceps rex) found on the White Nile. It is brownish-gray with black wings, tail and feet, the head is slightly crested, the bill short, broad and deep, with the tip hooked and mottled dusky and yellow. These birds, also known as "boat-bills," live in flocks in swampy woods and morasses, and feed upon all kinds of small reptiles, frogs, fish, mollusks and carrion. Although they perch upon trees, the nest is on the ground, a slight lining of grass, etc., in a slight hollow. The eggs are white and from 2 to 10 in number.

SHOE INDUSTRY IN THE UNITED STATES. History.- Shoes were brought to America by the first settlers, as part of their equipment. The Indians wore moccasins, and the white men adopted them until Thomas Beard, a shoemaker of Saint Martin's lane, London, came to Massachusetts Bay colony in

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1629, bringing a supply of leather as well as a kit of tools, and became the first shoemaker on record in the colonies. As the colonies grew, other shoemakers came, and Johnson, in his 'Wonder Working Providence, speaks of the shoe trade in 1654 as among the industries "enriching themselves very much." Many early settlers, being jacks of all trades, made their own shoes. Some raised the cattle and tanned the leather, of which their shoes were made. In New England, shoemakers tramped from settlement to settlement, making and mending shoes, and accepting board and lodging as part pay. In the larger towns, shoemakers set up regular shops. The shoemakers "inhabiting and housekeeping in Boston" were authorized to incorporate by the General Court of the Bay colony, and to enforce rules for the good of their trade. However, the Court provided that there should be no unlawful combination "for enhancing the prices of shoes or wages whereby the people suffer." The Court also provided that no butcher should make leather, that no tanner should make shoes and that no shoemaker should tan leather. It forbade the use of false and deceitful mixtures in making leather. Also it forbade the wearing of extravagant styles in footwear by persons of mean estate. Government regulation of the footwear industry during the war 1914-18 was mild compared to the government regulation during colonial times. The shoe industry flourished, as the colonies grew. But it was not strong enough to provide footwear for the soldiers of the Revolution, and Washington's troops left the bloody footprints of their bare feet in the snows of Valley Forge. John Adam Dagyr, a soldier of the Revolution, and a shoeinaker, too, imported fine shoes from London and Paris, and studied them until he learned how to make shoes as good. He freely taught his skill to others. The newspapers spoke of him as "The Celebrated Shoemaker of Essex." They advised their readers to buy fine shoes made in America, instead of importing them from London and Paris.

After the Revolution, Congress put a protective tariff on shoes, and the tariff, with varying rates of duty, was kept in force until the present tariff bill, which put shoes on the free list, was adopted. The early 19th century was a golden era in the shoe industry. Shoemakers worked in little shops by their homes. The shops were called "ten footers" because they were 10 feet square. One of them is a permanent exhibit at the Essex Institute in Salem. The shoemakers read as they worked, or talked with visitors. Roger Sherman, a United States senator, who "never said foolish word," got his education by studying from books opened by his side as he made shoes. Henry Wilson, "The Natick Cobbler" who became Vice-President, got his first lessons in debate by discussing topics of the day with visitors at his little shop in Natick, Mass. Often, the minister was a Monday morning visitor at the shoe shop, and the Sunday sermon was discussed. A Bible was kept in many a shop. In large shops, the shoemakers often sang together. In small towns, men farmed in summer and made shoes in winter. Manufacturers of the cities sent cases of shoes in express wagons to the farmer shoemakers.

The kit of shoemakers of hand method days

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consisted of a lap stone, a flat face hammer, awls, waxed ends, knives, rub sticks, a piece of sharkskin, used as is sandpaper to-day for buffing leather, and a bottle of blacking and other small equipment. Each shoemaker had his own kit of tools and "seat" on which he worked and kept his tools by his side. Some used their tools and seats for a lifetime. The pay was small and the employment irregular. A dollar a day was high pay. At one period, in Lynn, shoemakers were paid in orders on the union store, exchanging their orders each Saturday for flour, molasses, salt fish and other necessities. The uppers of many shoes stitched by women who worked at home. "Binding shoes" this was called, and Lucy Larcom pictured it in her poem 'Hannah at the Window Binding Shoes.'

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The change from hand to machine methods in shoemaking makes a marvelous chapter in American industrial history. Thomas Blanchard, a Yankee mechanical genius, was challenged to make a machine to turn gun stocks. He did it. The machine was adapted to making shoe lasts. So it became possible to make thousands of lasts by machinery, where only one could be made by hand. The lasts were refined, and multiplied in style, and standardized in sizes, until there is the thousand and one varieties of to-day. Elias Howe, a struggling young machinist, invented the sewing machine. John Brooks Nichols, a Lynn shoemaker, adapted it to the sewing of uppers of shoes. Women ceased to "bind shoes" at home, or sew the uppers with needle and thread in hand. The machine does the work, stitching shoes a hundred times faster than could the most skilful "binder" and doing it better, too.

Lyman Blake, a South Abington, Mass., shoemaker, invented the McKay machine for sewing soles of shoes just before the Civil War. He worked on it nights, after doing a day's work in the factory. He realized that he didn't have the business ability to put his machine on the market. So he sold it for $70,000 to Col. Gordon McKay. When Blake asked Congress for an extension of his patents, he estimated that his machine had saved to the shoe trade $13,979,724.30.

This McKay machine revolutionized the shoe industry. The shoemakers who worked by hand in little shops at home could not compete against the machine. Factories were established Shoemakers and equipped with machinery. came from little shops to work in the factories. Machinery was invented and developed to supplement the McKay machine for sewing soles and for stitching uppers. One by one the hand workers gave place to the machine operators. Sixty different kinds of machines are used in an average factory at present, and one factory has 137 different kinds of machines which it uses in making a single pair of shoes.

Sidney W. Winslow and others consolidated the several important shoe machinery companies into the United Shoe Machinery Company in 1899. It established a system of leasing machinery. Manufacturers pay so much royalty for each pair of shoes made on its chief machines. They buy outright the supplementary machines, which are used in preparing a shoe for the chief machine, such as a welt sewing machine, or to finish the shoe after it is sewed.

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The company makes 25,000 machines year and 21,000,000 parts. It has its machines in 98 per cent of the shoe shops of the country. It has strong branches abroad, in Europe, South America, Australia and even in Asia and Africa. The methods of the company have been the subject of much discussion in the past few years. The government prosecuted it, 12 Dec. 1911, for violation of the Sherman AntiTrust Law. The charge was maintaining a monopoly of the shoe machinery industry. After various court actions, covering a period of seven years, the United States Supreme Court handed down a verdict that the company did not violate the Sherman law. The verdict says: "It is impossible to believe, and the court below refused to find, that the great business of the United Shoe Machinery Company has been built up by the coercion of its customers, and that its machinery has been installed in most of the large factories of the country by the exercise of power, even that of patents. The installations could have no other incentive than the excellence of the machines and the advantage of their use, the conditions imposed having adequate compensation, and not offensive to the letter and the policy of the law."

There is still pending in the courts a suit against the United Shoe Machinery Company for violation of the Clayton law, which forbids a "tying clause," or clause in leases which require that one machine shall be used in conjunction with another. This suit was brought in October 1915.

Production. Through the development of machinery and the factory system, the production of shoes has been multiplied, wages increased, conditions of labor elevated and shoes improved. Wages have increased from $5 or $6 a week to $5 or $6 a day, and skilled workers get more. Tuberculosis, a sickness common among shoemakers who sat on their benches and stooped over their work, is no more an affliction common among shoemakers. People generally get better looking, better fitting and better wearing shoes than ever they had before.

In the shoe manufacturing industry, there are, according to the United States census for 1919, 1,449 establishments. They make 331,224,628 pairs of shoes annually. The shoes are worth $1,155,041,000. They employ 211,09 persons, and pay them $210,735,000 annually in wages. They use 120,632 horse power for driving their machinery.

New England makes about half of the shoesof the country. The business has grown rapidly in the West in the past generation. Saint Louis claims to rival Boston as the greatest shoe centre of the world. Brocton leads in men's shoes, Lynn in women's shoes and Haverhill in fine slippers. Brooklyn and Philadelphia are noted for their fine shear Manchester, N. H., Auburn, Me., Rochester, N. Y., Cincinnati, Ohio, Chicago, Ill., Endicott, N. Y., and Milwaukee, Wis., are among the big shoe-making

centres.

The old-time shoemaker, who worked in a little shop, made a case of shoes a week, or 6 pairs. The custom shoemaker made any sort of shoes his customers desired, for men, women or children. The shops of to-day specialize, one making men's shoes only, one making women's

shoes only and one making children's only. Specialization is the secret of much of the American progress of the American shoe trade. Some shops carry it so far that they make just one grade of shoes, over just one last.

A small shop of to-day makes from 100 to 500 pairs of shoes daily. A medium-size shop makes from 1,000 to 5,000 pairs daily, a big shop makes from 5,000 to 10,000 pairs. A company with several shops makes from 10,000 to 25,000 pairs, and one great concern is credited with a production of 75,000 pairs of shoes daily. The American people average three pairs of shoes per capita per year, and spend about $1,000,000,000 a year for their footwear. Shoes are distributed in the United States through 50,000 retail stores.

Export. Development of export trade in boots and shoes followed close upon the development of the American shoe factory system. Exports of shoes amounted to $419,000 in 1870. That was when machines were comparatively new, and machine-equipped shops made only a few shoes. In 1900 exports of shoes amounted to $4,000,000. Then all shops were machine equipped, and were able to produce more shoes than the home markets consumed. Exports to Cuba increased rapidly after the Spanish-American War. Cuba is the best customer that American manufacturers have among foreign nations. Exports to South American countries began to increase after the completion of the Panama Canal. They increased enormously during the World War. For 1916 they amounted to 19,400,000 pairs, worth $42,500,000. Many of these shoes were for the armies of France and Italy. In 1922-23 shoe exports amounted to 6,683,762 pairs (men's, women's and children's) valued at $15,532,540.

Styles. Styles in footwear have changed much, as people changed their activities. Puritans wore plain, square-toe shoes with buckles. Cavaliers wore great boots. People walked much, until railroads came, and necessarily wore stout footwear. Men of the colonial and early Revolutionary period wore small clothes, long stockings and low shoes with buckles. Jefferson provoked bitter criticism when, as President, he first put on pantaloons and lace shoes. Women had one pair of coarse shoes for week day wear and a pair of fine kid shoes for Sunday best. Farmers wore knee high boots of heavy cowhide leather. A century ago New England manufacturers made many "stogas" or coarse brogans, for the slaves of the South. In pioneer towns it was a not uncommon practice for a thrifty farmer and his family to walk barefooted to town, carrying their shoes in their hands, and stop at the edge of the town to put on their shoes, and then walk in them to church. In grandmothers' time, serge Congress boots were common. They had uppers of cloth, with elastic gorings in the sides. Men wore Congress shoes, too. dren's shoes were crude. In shoemaking families, father's old boots were cut apart and were made over into shoes for the children. As the production of shoes multiplied, and the wealth of the people increased, a greater variety of shoes was produced, and people had at their command work shoes, dress shoes, dancing slippers, comfort shoes, fireside slippers, storm boots, fishing boots, baseball shoes, nurses' shoes and other kinds. Indeed, there is now a

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special kind of shoe for almost every employment or pastime.

Toward the close of the last century, a fashion of "toothpick toes" came in, for both men and women. These shoes had toes long and slim like a toothpick. The wearing of them cramped the toes, and broke down the arches of the feet, and did other great harm. To correct these faults, ingenious persons began to make arch supporters, toe protectors, corn plasters and other remedial devices. The sale of them runs into millions annually.

As standards of shoes have advanced through improvements in manufacture, there has also been improvement in the methods of taking care of shoes. The business of making shoe blackings is extensive. The business of blacking shoes is larger to-day than was the business of making shoes a century ago. Also, machinery for repairing shoes has been developed, and the modern repair shop established in every neighborhood. Now, according to estimates, 100,000,000 pairs of shoes are repaired annually, and the repairing business totals to $300,000,000 annually.

Rubber.- Rubber footwear is comparatively modern. Early colonists wore snow shoes, or clogs and pattens, the latter being wooden soles which were strapped to the feet, over the regular shoes. The first rubber shoes, which appeared about a century ago, were called "gum shoes." They were made of pure rubber. They froze and cracked in cold weather, and they melted and stuck together in hot weather. It was not until Goodyear discovered his process of vulcanizing rubber that rubber footwear became practicable. The making of rubber footwear flourishes in Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Connecticut. Besides making storm footwear, commonly called "rubbers," the rubber shoe companies produce millions of pairs of sport and street shoes, called "sneakers." Rubber heels are made by the millions and during the last few years, the manufacture and wear of soles of rubber and fibre has increased rapidly. See BOOTS AND SHOES; LEATHER, MANUFACTURE AND USES OF; LEATHER AND SHOE-Trade TECHNICAL TERMS.

FRED A. GANNON.

SHOEMAKER, Michael Myers, American author: b. Covington, Ky., 26 June 1853; d. Paris, France, 11 Aug. 1924. He studied at Cornell University and after 1874 traveled extensively over the greater part of the world, making special anthropological studies. He published Eastward to the Land of the Morning' (1893) 'Kingdom of the White Woman) (1894); (Sealed Provinces of the Tsar' (1895); Quaint Corners of Ancient Empires' (1899); Palaces and Prisons of Mary, Queen of Scots' (1901); "The Great Siberian Railway) (1903); Heart of the Orient (1904); Winged Wheels in France) (1906); Wanderings in Ireland' and 'Islam Lands (1910); Indian Pages and Pictures' (1912), etc.

SHOGUN, shō-goon, the highest officer in the Japanese government during the continuance of the feudal system. He was originally a purely military official, commanderin-chief of the army and first vassal the emperor. The office became hereditary, and the Shoguns gradually acquired nearly all the real powers of government, leaving only the

to

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title of royalty to the emperor. The latter resided at Kioto while the Shogun held court at Yedo (Tokio) whence he ruled in the emperor's name as his major-domo. The shogunate was abolished in 1868. See JAPAN, HISTORY.

SHOLOM ALEICHEM. See RABINOWITZ, SOLOMON.

SHONTS, Theodore Perry, American railroad official: b. Crawford County, Pa., 5 May 1856; d. New York, 21 Sept. 1919. He was graduated at Monmouth College in 1876 and for a time practised law, but soon became interested in railroad construction. He was in charge of the construction of part of the Iowa Central Railroad and afterward built and was controlling owner of the Missouri, Iowa and Nebraska Railroad. He also gained control of the Toledo, Saint Louis and Western Railroad. In 1905-07 he was chairman of the Isthmian Canal Commission, to which post he was appointed by President Roosevelt. He was president of the Interborough Metropolitan Railroad of New York 1907-19, and president and director in many important railroad and trust companies.

SHOOTER ISLAND, an island in Newark Bay, separated by a narrow channel from Staten Island, N. Y., one mile east of Elizabeth, N. J. It is chiefly noted for its large shipbuilding plant.

SHOOTING STARS, are small bodies that enter the earth's atmosphere from without and, being intensely heated by impact with the air, are consumed before reaching the ground. They probably vary greatly in size, but it is believed that the vast majority do not exceed a few grains in weight. A few may be seen on any clear night, and the number entering the atmosphere every 24 hours has been estimated by Professor Newton at not less than 15,000,000. Most of them are no brighter than ordinary stars, but some rival the brightest planets in luminosity. They seem to leave shining trails behind them, which are perhaps sometimes due to persistence of vision. the larger ones, resembling brilliant fireballs, leave trails which sometimes remain visible for many minutes. Besides the true shooting stars there are certain massive, meteoric bodies which sometimes reach the earth's surface; these are called meteorites and will be found described under a separate heading. (See METEORITES).

But

Shooting stars before encountering the earth are invisible to us, traveling in their own orbits about the sun. The moment they strike the atmosphere their kinetic energy begins to be transformed into heat, and they become visible at an elevation of from 75 to 100 miles, where the air is more rarefied than under the exhausted receiver of an air-pump. This rarefaction of the upper air does not, however, save them from the effects of their impact with the atmospheric molecules. Sir William Thomson (Lord Kelvin) has shown that the effect of the friction of the air upon a particle is the same as if the latter was enveloped in a blowpipe flame having a temperature of many thousands of degrees, and the degree of temperature thus developed does not depend upon the density of the medium, but is as great in rare as in dense air. Under these circumstances small particles may be consumed in a fraction of a second. Even if shooting stars, instead of mov

ing independently about the sun, stood fast in space to be encountered by the earth in its annual flight round the sun, their fate would be similar, for the velocity of the earth in its orbit is nearly 19 miles per second, and Professor Newcomb has pointed out that the rise of temperature produced by the impact of our atmosphere with a meteoroid at rest would be nearly 600,000 degrees! But before such a degree of temperature is actually attained the shooting star, even though composed of the most solid metal, must be burned up or volatilized with an immense evolution of light and heat. This accounts for the visibility, at the height of 50 to 100 miles, of particles whose mass may not exceed a single grain.

The height of a bright shooting star may be ascertained by comparing observations of its apparent track among the stars made simultaneously from two points on the earth's surface, a number of miles apart. Each observer sees it projected in a different direction, and the fixity of the star-marked background of the sky across which it moves affords the means of determining the angle between the lines of sight of the two observers. This gives the parallax, and, the length of the base line between the observers being known, its distance and elevation can thence be calculated. It is probable that all shooting stars are entirely consumed by the time they have descended to within 40 or 50 miles of the earth's surface; it cannot be doubted, however, that after floating in the air for perhaps a very long time in the form of impalpable dust, their material finally settles down and comes to rest upon the earth. But the quantity of this is so minute that it would be hopeless to search for it upon the soil and lands of the earth. Nordenskiold, by melting many tons of polar snows and filtering the water, found a residuum of minute globules of oxide and sulphide of iron, and similar particles have been found by dredging at great depths in the sea. Altogether it is certain that the mass of our earth is being continually increased in this way, but its growth is excessively slow. If we assume that 20,000,000 shooting stars fall daily (probably a reasonable estimate), and that the average weight is one-fourth of an ounce, a simple computation shows that there will be thus added to our earth no less than 50,000 tons in each year. At this rate some 800,000,000 years will be required for the deposition of a layer one inch in thickness over the entire earth's surface. It is an important astronomical consideration that this must diminish the rate of rotation of the earth and thus produce a secular lengthening of the day. The action of the tides also tends to lengthen our fundamental unit of time, while the slow shrinking of the earth shortens it; whether the combined effect of all causes is an actual quickening or a slackening of the earth's rotation we do not know. No method of investigation yet devised has been sufficiently refined to detect any change during historic time.

In addition to the sporadic shooting stars which may be seen on any dark night, darting in various directions across the heavens, these bodies occasionally appear in showers, when the sky seems to be filled with flying sparks of fire all radiating from some fixed point among the constellations. These showers are caused by

the earth encountering streams of particles traveling in elliptical orbits about the sun.

Scientific study of the orbits of shooting stars began after the occurrence of the most brilliant meteoric shower on record, that of 13 Nov. 1833. This spectacle, which excited the greatest interest among all beholders and was looked upon with consternation by the ignorant, many of whom thought that the end of the world had come, was witnessed generally throughout North America, which happened to be the part of the earth then facing the meteoric storm. Hundreds of thousands of shooting stars fell in the course of two or three hours. Some observers compared their number to the flakes of a snowstorm, or to the raindrops in a shower. The more observant spectators noticed that all the meteors appeared to radiate from a fixed point in the constellation Leo. Tracing their trails backward it was seen that they came together at that point, like the ribs of an opened umbrella meeting about its central stick. This peculiarity is now known to characterize all showers, although when the number of shooting stars is not very great the ribbed appearance produced by the convergence of their trails around the starting point is not so conspicuous. The common centre from which they appear to radiate is called the radiant point, and the determination of its exact location among the stars is of the first importance in ascertaining the actual path of the particles in space outside the earth. A considerable number of such radiant points are now known, each different swarm whose orbit happens to intersect the orbit of the earth having its own radiant, the position of which depends upon the situation of its orbit with reference to the earth.

The explanation of the radiant point depends simply on the laws of perspective. The particles are traveling in parallel paths in a broad cylindrical column, which may envelop the whole earth. When they become visible by striking the air, the observer, looking in the direction from which they approach, sees those that are coming straight toward him as bright points, which grow rapidly larger and then suddenly disappear when they are consumed. Others which, if they reached the earth, would strike to the right or left, or in front of or behind him, appear to diverge in all directions. The same effect is visible when snowflakes are falling vertically on a calm day. Looking straight upward in the midst of the shower of flakes the observer sees them apparently diverging toward every point of the compass, with the exception of the few that fall straight into his eyes.

an

Immediately after the great display of 1833 Prof. Denison Olmsted of Yale College announced that what had occurred was encounter by the earth with a vast swarm of particles moving around the sun. The probability that such an encounter was a recurrent phenomenon suggested itself. It was also observed that there were other, less brilliant, showers at different times of the year, notably the annual display on 10 August, having its radiant point in the constellation Perseus. George Adolf Erman, a German physicist and mathematician, about 1839, clearly showed how the orbits of the swarms causing such showers could be determined, but it was not until Prof. Hubert

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A. Newton of Yale College took up the inquiry in 1864 that the final solution of the problem was begun. Professor Newton, by a careful discussion of ancient records, demonstrated that ever since the 10th century of our era there had been recurrent showers in the autumn at an average interval of 334 years. Sometimes the interval was 34 years and sometimes only 32 years, or less, but the mean was 334. Upon this basis a return of the shower was predicted for 1866 or 1867.

There had been a gradual change in the date of the showers, which, beginning with 13 October in the year 902, had become 13 November in 1833, but this could be accounted for by planetary attractions shifting the position of the orbit so that its point of intersection with the orbit of the earth moved forward along the latter about a degree and a half in a century.

It had also been observed that usually there was a considerable display a year before or a year after the principal shower. The evident explanation of this was that, instead of being concentrated at one point on their orbit, the particles were strung along in a column of sufficient length to occupy at least two years in crossing the point of intersection with the path of the earth, so that the latter after meeting them once could complete its annual circuit and arrive again at the crossing place before the whole column had passed.

The question remained, what was the length of the orbit of the shooting-star particles or how long a time did they require to make a single journey round the sun and return to their meeting place with the earth? Professor Newton's computations showed that there were five different orbits, any one of which would be consistent with the observed facts. The test by which the real orbit could be selected from the five possible orbits depended on the perturbing action of the planets, already referred to, and the application of this test would require long and laborious mathematical work.

Before this work had been done a predicted return of the phenomenon occurred, with a notable shower in November 1866, followed by a second display the next year. On reither occasion was the spectacle equal to that of 1833. Prof. John Couch Adams of Cambridge University, England, now took up the work of computing the planetary perturbations, and he showed that the period of 334 years must be the true one because it alone satisfied all the conditions of the problem. This period, it will be seen, corresponds exactly with the mean interval between the showers. The orbit is a long ellipse, its inner end being a little nearer the sun than the earth is, its cuter end beyond the orbit of Uranus.

The period and orbit of the November shooting stars having thus been determined, their next return, in 1899 or 1900, was eagerly awaited. Before the time arrived, however, astronomers had begun to foresee the probability of a disappointment. Dr. G. Johnstone Stoney and Mr. A. M. Downing had calculated the perturbative effect of Jupiter and Saturn upon the swarm, the action of these planets having been particularly effective after 1867, and had pointed out that the result must have been a swerving inward of the orbit of the swarm, so that it could no longer intersect