356 THE EARTH AXD COMETS' TAILS. 



the Earth is bombarded with meteorites which are also throwing" 

 off corpuscles. These will be repelled by both Earth and Sun, 

 so that if we look at the part of the sky opposite to the Sun 

 w^e should and do see the faint tail thus formed which is known 

 as the Gegenschein. This simple theory explains all the facts 

 of observation and if it is correct, will save nervous individuals 

 some worry when the next near approach of a comet's tail 

 is imminent. 



Mr. H. C. Reeve of Lorentzville under date of 22nd May has 

 sent me a letter conveying the same idea; he says: "What- 

 soever nature the stress between the Sun and the Comet may 

 be which causes the repulsion of the tail .... the same stress 

 must also exist between the Earth and the Comet .... under 

 these circumstances the Earth could not possibly pass through 

 the Comet's tail." 



The accompanying photograph of Halley's Comet was 

 taken at the Transvaal Observatory, Johannesburg, on the 6th 

 May, 1910. Exposure 60 minutes (from 4* 14 to 5" 14 a.m.) 

 throuoh Franklin Adams' Star Camera. 



THE LATE SIR WILLIAM HUGGINS, K.C.B., 

 O.Mv Ph.D., F. R.S.— The death of Sir William Huggins, 

 recently announced, removes from the scene one of the very 

 foremost astro-physicists of our day. Born eightly-six years 

 ago, he witnessed, diu'ing his life-time, the inception and 

 remarkable development of the whole system of modern 

 astronomical science. Indeed his own spectroscopic researches 

 contributed most materially to that development. The study 

 of chemical and physical science attracted him while quite a 

 youth, and he was afforded the privilege in comparatively early 

 manhood, of advancing scientific progress by his own 

 researches, unhampered by what are but too frequently the 

 fetters, burdens, and restrictions of official position. 



He was scarcely more than thirty when he built his private 

 observatory at Upper Tulse Hill, near London, and since 1856 

 his name has been unremittingly associated with the study of 

 the heavens. He had then been for some years a member of 

 the Microscopical Society of London, and had devoted a good 

 deal of his time to the microscopic study of animal and vegetable 

 physiology : the erection of the world-famed Tulse Hill 

 Observatory, however, marks the epoch of the diversion of his 

 investigations into what proved to be his life's work. Thence- 

 forth his name became a household word in connection with 

 the investigation of the physical constitution of stars, nebulae, 

 planets, and comets. 



It was towards the middle of the sixties that spectroscopic 

 researches of the heavenly bodies began, and amongst those 

 w^ho pursued these investigations. Mr. Huggins was a pioneer. 

 His name is associated with the names of Lockyer and Janssen 

 as one of the earliest observers of the curious red prominences 

 which are constantly darting up to many thousands of miles 

 from the sun's chromosphere, and by using a spectroscope 



