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indeed, to find the greater number of the Neptunian 

 comets travelling forwards, but we could scarcely ex- 

 pect to find their paths lying nearly in the level of the 

 ecliptic. Accordingly, out of six known Neptunian 

 comets, we find that five travel forwards and only one 

 (Halley's comet) travels backwards, while their paths 

 are found to show every variety of inclination, one (De 

 Vico's) having a path very nearly square to the level in 

 which Neptune himself travels. 



Adopting this theory of comets and their associated 

 meteor trains, meteoric astronomy resumes something of 

 the uniformity it possessed before the remarkable evi- 

 dence was obtained which has recently compelled as- 

 tronomers and physicists to regard some meteors at 

 any rate as the results of solar explosions. All comets 

 and all meteor systems, no matter what their grade, 

 must be regarded as consisting of matter expelled from 

 the various orbs which people space. Only, whereas 

 the great meteoric masses owe their origin to suns, the 

 streams of small meteors which produce the ordinary 

 falling-stars owe their birth, if this theory be true, to 

 the explosive energies of orbs which, like the giant 

 planets of the solar system, lie midway in bulk and 

 might between inhabited worlds such as the Earth, 

 Venus, Mercury, and Mars, and great central suns like 

 the orb which rules and nourishes our solar system. 

 (From the Cornhill Magazine for January 1873.) 



