ON COMETS. 127 



name, who first observed it at Florence on the 2d of 

 June, at which time it appeared only as a round misty 

 patch or "nebula," This was about a month after it 

 had passed from the southern to the northern side of 

 the plane of the earth's orbit : and that of the comet 

 being very highly inclined (63) to the ecliptic; its peri- 

 helion lying also on the north side of that plane ; its 

 motion being retrograde, and the earth accordingly ad- 

 vancing to meet it ; all these favourable circumstances 

 concurring, it so happened that our nearest proximity to 

 it occurred only six days after its "perihelion passage" 

 or time of nearest approach to the sun, which took place 

 on the 2 Qth of September, and in a situation with respect 

 to the sun every way advantageous to obtaining a good 

 view of it. Accordingly, with the exception of the comet 

 of Halley in 1835, no comet on record has been watched 

 with such assiduity, or been more thoroughly scrutinized. 

 A resume of all the observations of it has been recently 

 published by Professor Bond, forming the third volume 

 of the " Annals of the Observatory of Harvard College, 

 in the United States," in which its appearance in every 

 stage of its progress is represented in a series of engrav- 

 ings, which in point of exquisite finish and beauty of 

 delineation leave far behind everything hitherto done in 

 that department of astronomy. 



(43.) It was not till the i4th of August, or 73 days after 

 its first discovery, that it began to throw out a tail, and 

 to become a conspicuous object Very soon after this, 

 its first appearance ; a slight but perceptible curvature 

 was perceived in the tail, which, on the i6th of Sop- 



