Astronomy. 367 
in the normal school, founded by the Education Society, in 
concert with the prefect of the Seine.— Rev. Encyc. 
3. Astronomy.— An amateur of astronomy at Prague, M. 
de Biela, an officer of grenadiers, has remarked two impor- 
tant facts in the last comet, which was discovered by him 
the 30th of December last year, and observed the next day, 
the 31st. The first of these facts confirms the opinion pre- 
viously advanced by him, that the proximity of the comet in- 
fluences the luminous condition of the sun. In fact, from 
the 23d and 24th of October, 1822, the period in which a 
comet was in its perihelion, till the 5th of December, 1823, 
he remarked no spot on the sun. On the Sth of Decem- 
ber, he perceived a very considerable spot, yeas regularly 
increased upon the surface of the sun till the 13th of Decem- 
The 21st of the same month, a second mise spot was 
seen, about leaving the surface of the sun, and which had 
doubtless been produced a short time before. On the 30th 
of December,the first spot became visible upon the other side, 
and continued to increase till the 6th of January, 1824, when 
a cloudy season prevented observation for a long time. It 
was calculated that the comet passed its peribelion in the 
nights of the 9th and 10th of December, at a distance from 
the sun equal to half that of Mercury. On the 7th of Janua- 
ry, the time in which the first spot would have shown itself 
for the third time on the sun, it did not appear, and the sun 
remained free from spots until the 16th of January. If this 
discovery of the relation between the comets and solar spots 
should be confirmed, it will be of some importance ; for since 
the observations of Herschell, many astronomers have re- 
marked that the spots on the sun had a real influence upon 
our temperature 
he second remark of M. de Biela, i es a on the night of 
the 22d and 23d of January, the comet, besides its tail, 
which extended from the side pm eae rs the sun, had a 
second turned towards that luminary. These two tails were 
not precisely opposite to each other, but formed an obtuse 
angle. M. de Biela, who is certain that in this there was no 
bs sation ore either from the instrument or the eye of the 
ofthe second 
a is, tat the comet, like many other ‘meteors, left behind it 
a luminous trace over its passage, and that this second tail 
indicates the path that the comet had just passed over. This 
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