ASTRONOMY AND METEOROLOGY. 361 



results in such castings flying into fragments in spite of their apparent 

 strength, either per se, or on the application of some force otherwise 

 totally inadequate to produce so destructive a result. Now, let us 

 apply this action (which we find constant in the cooling of all masses 

 of brittle material) to the case of the supposed parent planet of the 

 asteroids. It appears to me that we shall find in such the elements of 

 a very feasible, if not the true explanation of the origin of this remark- 

 able and numerous group of planets, namely, that the parent planet 

 may have consisted of such materials as that by the rapid passing of its 

 surface from the original molten condition to that of solidification, 

 while the yet fluid or semi-fluid went on contracting by the compara- 

 tively gradual escape of its heat into space, through the solid crust, a 

 state of tension mav therebv have been induced, such as that in the 



/ 



' Rupert drop,' and that the crust may have at last given way with 

 such violence as to cause the fragment to part company, and to pass 

 off, whirling into orbits, slightly varying from each other, according to 

 corresponding variations in the condition of each at the instant of 

 rupture. The remarkable fact that the orbits of these asteroids have 

 one common node, or point of coincidence, causes us to look to some 

 such explanation as I have thus hazarded." 



COMETS DISCOVERED IX 1852. 



A SMALL comet, very faint, without nucleus, was discovered on the 

 loth of May, in the constellation Cepheus, at the Observatory at Mar- 

 seilles, by M. Jany Chacornac. Two days subsequently it was detect- 

 ed by M. Peterson, at Altona, and the next night by Mr. George P. 

 Bond, at the Cambridge Observatory, Massachusetts. 



M. "NVestphal, of the Observatory of Goettingen, discovered on the 

 24th of July, a comet about 1| south of the star /, Pisces. In the 

 finder it occupied a space of several minutes. 



Return of the Twin Comet of Biela. On the 26th of August 

 Prof. Secchi, of Rome, discovered a portion of the twin comet of 

 Biela on its return, and on the 16th of September, he detected the 

 other portion. It was very faint, without nucleus, and of an elongated 

 ovoid form, the apex being turned away from the sun. It followed the 

 other part at a distance of about two minutes of time, and was about 

 half a degree farther south. The principle part of the comet did not 

 continue to appear of the same figure as at first. It looked quite 

 irregular, and had two very faint streaks ; it was more luminous in 

 the centre, but without any nucleus. 



SHOOTING STARS OF AUGUST 9-10, 1852. 



AT the meteoric epoch in August of the year 1852, the weather 

 at New Haven was very unfavorable for observation. During the 

 night of the 9th, the sky was almost entirely overcast, and the follow- 

 ing night was rainy, and observation wholly impossible. On the night 

 of the 9th, Mr. John Edmunds watched here between two and three 



