Introductory notes

1. This Catalogue is intended partly as a sequel to the Reports on Luminous Meteors, now continues for a series of years in the volumes of the British Association Reports, and partly as a continuation, in a corrected and extended form, of a Catalogue of Meteorites published by the author, in two papers on the same subject, in the Numbers of the Philosophical Magazine and Journal of Science for November and December 1854.
2. The following works and periodicals have been consulted, viz.-- Thomson's Meteorology, 1849; Transactions of the Royal Society; Nicholson's Journal of Natural Philosophy; Thomson's Annals of Philosophy; London, Edinburgh, and Dublin Philosophical Magazine; Brewster's Encyclopaedia, article "Meteorite;" Annual Register; Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal; British Association Reports; Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy; Spurgeon's Annuals of Electricity; New Edinburgh Philosophical Journal; Partsch's Shepard's, and Reichenbach's Catalogues of Meteorites; R. Wolf's, Chladni's, Boguslawski's, Quetelet's, Baumhauer's, and Coulvier-Gravier's Catalogues; Dr. Clark's Thesis on Iron Meteoric Masses; Poggendorff's Annalen; Annales de Chimie et de Physique; Comptes Redus; Transactions of the Imperial Academy of Arts and Sciences of Vienna, 1859-60, papers by W. Haidinger; Transactions of the Royal Academy of Brussels; Quarterly Journals of the Natural History Society of Zurich, 1856; Die Feuermeteore insbesondere die Meteoriten, &c., von Dr. Otto Buchner of Giessen, 1859; Lithologia meteorica del Profesor Joaquin Balcells, Barcelona, 1854; Report on Meteorites, by Prof. Shepard; Reports of the Smithsonian Institution, United States; Silliman's American Journal; as well as various private notices and public journals. I have likewise to acknowledge the kind assistance and valuable information received from Herr P. A. Kesselmeyer, Dr. Buchner, Herr W. von Haidinger, and Professor Heis.
3. The few abbreviations used in this Catalogue speak for themselves, and hardly need explanation. Where weights of meteorites are stated, it is generally intended to denominate lbs. Troy, English, though sometimes the Vienna or Prussian pound has unavoidably been given. Tables of analysis are added at the end of the catalogues. Genuine cases of stone- or iron-falls and detonating meteors, are marked with an asterisk (*), and in the Tables count for 1; doubtful cases are marked in the Catalogue with a (?), and count as ½ in the Tables.
   The numbers in some of the Tables, it will be found, do not quite agree with those in the corresponding Tables given in the Report on Luminous Meteors, in the Volume of the British Association Reports for 1860, owing to the circumstance that when that Report was presented at the Oxford Meeting the present Catalogue was not then quite completed.
4. A few remarks are added to the Tables, which do not call for much comment in this place, as they have mostly already been alluded to in the aforesaid Report. With regard to the November period for shooting stars, E. C. Herrick, of the United States, considers it to be advancing into the year; in A.D. 1202, it occurred about the 26th October; in 1366 on October 30th; so that the motion of the node or ring which furnishes these shooting stars, is at the rate of 3 or 4 days a century; the period itself being a recurrent one probably of about 33 years. (See Silliman's Journal, No. 91, p. 137, for January 1861.)
5. In the Catalogue itself great care has been taken in separating the different kinds of fireballs and aërolites; hitherto this has not been done with sufficient care, and large meteors have not unfrequently been called aërolitic, when not even any detonation has been reported; examples of this not unfrequently occur in the catalogues of Baumhauer, Kämtz, and Arago. Dr. Buchner of Giessen, and P.A. Kesselmeyer of Frankfort-on-Maine, will, I understand, shortly bring out catalogues of aërolitic falls, where details in matters concerning original authorities and geographical distribution, &c. will be given fully.
   In the Tables at the end of this Catalogue, Class A includes only cases where stones or irons have really fallen; Class B, meteors accompanied by detonation; Class C, first-class meteors not accompanied by detonation; this class includes all fireballs given in the catalogues up to the year 1820; after that time, only the most remarkable ones, as in consequence of the subsequent greatly increased numbers of observations from about that time, it is evident the described fireballs would probably be of smaller size than for older observations; Class D includes all fireballs mentioned in the catalogues and supplements, large or small, where no detonation was reported, and of course includes the C class. The Tables are so constructed, that a glance will suffice to show the results as regards numbers and dates, and the proportion which one class bears to another; some of them will be found to be not without some interest.

Note.--Wherever the words "Stone-fall" or "Iron-fall" occur, it may be understood, as a rule, that such phenomenon was also accompanied by a detonating fireball, or at least by a detonation.