; rs On the Tails of Comets. 35 
ae * SNot having seen any notice of this novel ae safe method of 
ee. lasting in your excellent journal, induced me to send you these 
_ few remarks. 
I believe [am the first in Ireland that applied the galvanic bat- 
tery. instead of the fuze in blasting. 
Art. V.—On the Tails of Comets; by Wiuutam Mircnety, of 
Nantucket, Mass. 
Tere is perhaps no department of astrenieniiinel science, con- 
nected with the solar system, of a nature more interesting than 
_ that of Comets, and certainly no one which has so nearly defied 
the researches and the reasonings of the astronomer. Aside from 
these bodies, if such they may be called, the greater and the 
lesser lights have been subjected to rigorous weight and measure, 
and the solar system is emphatically the beaten way of the as- 
tronomer. Comets however have presented difficulties so insu- 
perable, that in latter times the subject seems to have been nearly 
abandoned in despair; and armed as the present age may be 
agi the horrors of superstition, a cometary appearance as im- 
“posing as that of 1680, or even of the less threatening aspect of 
’ that of 1744, would create no small degree of uneasiness in some 
Bee, hearts of the stoutest mould. When Dr. Olbers announced that 
_ a portion of the earth’s orbit would be involved in the nebulous 
atmosphere of Biela’s comet in 1832, one half at least of the 
oa civilized | world quaked with fear. Notwithstanding the alluring 
Promise held out to the modern student by the glories of siderial 
.  48tronomy, nothing can justify a neglect of phenomena which, by 
a close investigation, might result in contributing so much to the 
tranquillity of the world. Impressed forcibly in my youth by the 
beautiful appearance of the comet of 1807, and, at a riper age, 
with those of 1811, 1819, 1825, and 1835, visible to the naked 
eye, and with others, seen at various periods by telescopic aid, I 
have been led frequently to reflect on the probable nature and 
physical properties of these erratic objects, and especially on that 
distinguishing appendage which by common consent is denom- 
inated the tail. In looking over the history of comets, aud no- 
ting the explanation of the trains (with which they are for the 
