In 1878 _Alexander Stewart Herschel_ (born 1836), son of Sir John Herschel, and a famous meteoric observer, published a list of known or suspected coincidences of meteoric and cometary orbits, amounting to seventy-six. Meanwhile much progress has since been made in the observation of meteoric showers and the determination of their radiant points. In this branch of astronomy, by far the greatest name is that of William Frederick Denning, the self-made English astronomer. Born at Redpost, in Somerset, in 1848, his career of meteoric observation commenced in 1866. For the past forty years he has attentively devoted himself to the observation of meteors. From 1872 to 1903 he determined the radiant points of no fewer than 1179 meteoric showers. In addition to this, he published, in 1899, a catalogue of meteoric radiants, containing 4367; and he has carefully studied the remarkable objects known as fireballs or “sporadic meteors.” He has occasionally been able to trace a connection between fireballs and weak meteoric showers, but he concludes that they “must either be merely single sporadic bodies, or else the survivors of some meteor group, nearly exhausted by the waste of its material during many past ages.” All of Denning’s meteoric work has been done in his spare time, for it must be borne in mind that he pursues the profession of accountant in Bristol, and that only his leisure hours have been devoted to the science of astronomy. His researches have been entirely conducted with the unaided eye. His only instrument is a perfectly straight wand, which he uses as a help and corrective to the eye in ascribing the paths of the meteors. Thanks to the laborious work of this able English astronomer, the observation of meteors is now a _scientific_ branch of astronomy. In the words of Maunder, “for six thousand years men stared at meteors and learned nothing, for sixty years they have studied them and learned much, and half of what we know has been taught us in half that time by the efforts of a single observer.” Further meteoric showers from Biela’s comet were seen in 1885 and 1892. The Leonid shower was confidently predicted for 1899, in accordance with the thirty-three-year period, but the great display did not come off, either in 1899 or 1900. In 1901 there was a certain weak shower observed in America; and similar displays took place in 1903 and 1904. Many explanations have been given as to the failure of the shower, the most probable idea being that the attraction of Jupiter diverted the meteors from their course.