378 



COMFREY 



:sweep them out into space with enormous rapidity, 

 producing the splendid phenomena of the tail. The 

 researches of Gibers, Bessel, Norton of Yale College, 

 U.S., C. F. Pope, Zollner, and especially Professor 

 Bredicliin, late of Moscow Observatory, have gone 

 far to establish the existence of this force, and 

 *o identify it with electric repulsion. Professor 

 Bredichin has divided comets' tails into three 

 classes, those of hydrogen, of hydrocarbons, and of 

 iron, due respectively to a repellent force (1) of '12 

 times solar gravity, (2) equal to it, and (3) \ of it. 

 'The first material and force give straight, the second 

 slightly curved, and the third strongly curved tails. 

 The comet, 1886 f, showed three tails, one corre- 

 sponding to each of these types. Observation and 

 calculation have verified these conclusions as to the 

 forces, and forms of tails, but not yet as to the 

 electric nature of the forces. The light of comets is 

 mainly due to electric discharges ; a part, however, 

 is reflected solar light, and a part perhaps due to 

 incandescence. The tenuity of comets' tails is in- 

 conceivable to us, stars, which the slightest fog 

 would conceal, shining clearly through a thickness 

 *of millions of miles of their material. Hence, 

 although so gjeat a display is caused by the matter 

 swept away from the comet at perihelion, it loses 

 but little in apparent bulk, though in the course of 

 centuries the loss is abundantly perceptible. Some 

 comets, Professor Kirkwood suggests, are probably 

 asteroids, thrown out of their proper track by the 

 -disturbing force of Jupiter. 



Comets have been alternately regarded with terror 

 and with welcome in the popular mind. The 

 .appearance of Halley's comet in 1456, just as the 

 Turks had become masters of Constantinople, and 

 threatened an advance into Europe, was regarded 

 by Christendom with a superstitious dread, and to 

 the Ave Maria was added the prayer: ' Lord save 

 us from the devil, the Turk, and the comet. ' At 

 Constantinople the occurrence of a lunar eclipse at 

 the same time increased the portentousness of the 

 event. The discoveries of science of the magnitude 

 of the space filled by their bodies, and their pro- 

 digious velocity, together with the confessed impos- 

 sibility of always predicting their approach, pro- 

 duced fears of another kind, which have sometimes 

 been, especially in France, extravagantly exagger- 

 ated in the public mind. The groundlessness of 

 such alarms, from the extreme improbability of 

 collision with the nucleus, the innocuousness of a 

 contact with the extremely attenuated surrounding 

 matter, and, possibly, to the greater part of the 

 world, of a collision with the nucleus itself, will be 

 sufficiently evident from what has been said above. 

 It is certain that already, on many occasions, some 

 of the attenuated vapour in the tail of comets must 

 have come within the earth's attraction, and been 

 absorbed in its atmosphere. Whether the effect is 

 deleterious or salubrious, or whether it has any 

 perceptible influence at all, is only matter of specu- 

 lation. The salubrity of cometary influence is now 

 a popular idea ; and the vintages of 1811 and 1858 

 were favourable seasons, whose produce has been 

 advertised as the comet wines. It is scarcely worth 

 while, however, to follow further speculation on 

 these subjects, and it has been considered prefer- 

 able to confine this article chiefly to the description 

 of the general characteristics of comets, and the 

 facts respecting them afforded by science. 



Comfrey (Symphytum), a common palrearctic 

 genus of Boraginaceae, somewhat coarse perennial 

 herbs, although occasionally to be seen in flower- 

 borders. S. officinale (blue) and S. tuberosum 

 ( yellow ) are frequent in shady and moist places. 

 S. officinale was formerly much esteemed as a 

 vulnerary. Its young leaves and its blanched 

 shoots are still occasionally used as boiled vege- 

 tables. The Prickly Comfrey (S. asperrimum), 



a native of Siberia, 6-10 feet in height, has been 

 recommended for feeding cattle. The stamens 

 are covered in this genus by five awl-shaped 

 processes pushed in from the outside of the corolla, 

 and meeting so as to form a false bottom 

 impassable to ants, flies, and other small honey- 

 thieves, but which can be thrust aside by the 



Comfrey ( Symphytum officinale ). 



humble-bees which alone fertilise the flower. 

 Many bees, however (especially B. terrestris and 

 one or two others), prefer to bite a hole in the side 

 of the corolla below this cover, and the flowers may 

 thus be seen to be visited both in the legitimate 

 and illegitimate way. See, under FLOWER, Fertili- 

 sation of the Flower, vol. iv. p. 692. 



Coillilies, a town on the borders of Belgium 

 and France, 15 miles SW. of Courtrai by rail, 

 divided by the Lys into two parts, of which that on 

 the left (pop. 4381 ) belongs to Belgium ; the other, 

 on the right (pop. 6355), to France. The town has 

 some manufactures, and was the seat of the family 

 of Comines. 



routines. PHILIPPE BE, Sieur d'Argenton, a 

 French statesman and historian, who was born 

 about 1445 at Renescure, in the neighbour- 

 hood of Hazebrouck. His ancestors had been 

 citizens of Ghent. He joined the court of Bur- 

 gundy, and was sent by Charles the Bold on 

 important missions to France, England, and Spain. 

 In 1472 he forsook Charles and entered the service 

 of Louis XI. of France. He was rewarded with 

 the rich fief of Talmont, and became one of Louis's 

 most trusted advisers. On the accession of Charles 

 VIII. he was deprived of Talmont, and cast into 

 prison for having incurred the displeasure of the 

 regent, Anne of Beaujeu. He accompanied 

 Charles VIII. on his Italian expedition, was pres- 

 ent at the battle of Fornovo, and had an inter- 

 view with Machiavelli in Florence. He held 

 sundry places and pensions under Louis XII. , and 

 died in 1509. His Memoir es consist of seven 

 books, six of which deal with the reign of Louis 

 XL, while the seventh treats of Charles VIII. 's 

 wars in Italy. They are the earliest example in 



