METEOJEUC ASTRONOMY. 155 



phenomena. It split itself into two comets, in such a manner 

 that the performance was visible to the telescopic observer. 

 Both of these comets had nuclei and short tails, and they 

 alternately varied in brightness, sometimes one, then the 

 other, having the advantage. They travelled on at a distance 

 of about 156,000 miles from each other, with parallel tails, 

 and with a sort of friendly communication in the form of a 

 faint arc of light, which extended, as a kind of bridge, from 

 one to the other. Besides this, the one which was first the 

 brighter, then the fainter, and finally the brighter again, threw 

 out two additional tails, one of which extended lovingly 

 towards its companion. 



The time of return in 1852 was, of course, anxiously 

 expected by astronomers, and careful watch was kept for the 

 wanderers. They came again at the calculated time, still 

 separated as before. 



They were again due in 1859, in 1866, and, finally, at 

 about the end of last November, or the beginning of the pres- 

 ent month. Though eagerly looked for by astronomers in all 

 parts of the civilized world, they have been seen no more since 

 1852. 



What,, then, has become of them ? Have they further sub- 

 divided ? Have they crumbled into meteoric dust ? Have 

 they blazed or boiled into thin air ? or have they been dragged 

 by some interfering gravitation into another orbit ? The last 

 supposition is the most improbable, as none of the visible 

 inhabitants of space have come near enough to disturb them. 



The possibility of a dissolution into smaller fragments is 

 suggested by the fact that, instead of the original single 

 comet, or the two fragments, meteoric showers have fallen 

 toward the earth at the time when it has crossed the orbit of 

 the original comet, and these showers have radiated from that 

 part of the heavens in which the comet should have appeared. 

 Such was the case with the magnificent display of November 

 27th, and astronomers arc inclining more and more to the idea 

 that comets and meteors have a common origin that meteors 

 are little comets, or comets are big meteors. 



In the latest of the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronom- 

 ical Society, published last week, is a paper by Mr. Proctor, 

 in which he expands the theory expounded three years ago by 

 an author whom your correspondent's modesty prevents him 

 from naming viz. that the larger planets Jupiter, Saturn, 

 Uranus, and Neptuae are minor suns, ejecting meteoric 



