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Benzenberg and Brandes, many of the falling stars seen in Europe have been only thirty thousand toises high. One was even measured which did not exceed fourteen thousand toises, or five nautical leagues. These measures, which can give no result but by approximation, deserve well to be repeated.
Some light was thrown on the moot point presently by the observations of Brandes and Benzenberg, which tended to show that falling-stars travel at an actual speed of from fifteen to ninety miles a second.
M. Benzenberg observes, that the same cause which renders the phenomenon more frequent, has also an influence on the large size of the meteors, and the intensity of their light. In Europe, the greatest number of falling stars are seen on those nights on which very bright ones are mingled with very small ones. The periodical nature of the phenomenon augments the interest it excites.
Acting on his suggestion, Brandes and Benzenberg, two students at the University of Göttingen, began in 1798 to determine the heights of falling stars by simultaneous observations at a distance. They soon found that they move with planetary velocities in the most elevated regions of our atmosphere, and by the ascertainment of this fact laid a foundation of distinct knowledge regarding them.
The parents were not remarkably large. There is an instance of a boy of thirteen and a half who weighed 214 pounds. Kaestner speaks of a child of four who weighed 82 pounds, and Benzenberg noted a child of the same age who weighed 137. Hildman, quoted by Picat, speaks of an infant three years and ten months old who had a girth of 30 inches.
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