COMETARY INFLUENCES. 



also the greatest that they can be conceived to be, the chances 

 against a collision of the earth with any individual comet would 

 be 281 millions to one. 



Let us illustrate the meaning of this arithmetical conclusion. 

 If a comet appear next month, and if such a comet, encountering 

 the earth, would destroy the whole human race by the shock, 

 how is the danger of such a catastrophe, as it affects each indivi- 

 dual, to be estimated ? We answer that this danger would be 

 exactly the same as if 281 millions of white balls and one black 

 ball were put into an urn, and that the death of the individual 

 was to be the consequence of the single black ball being drawn 

 from the urn by the hand of a blind man. 



This conclusion, which is based upon strict mathematical 

 reasoning, will, we presume, be sufficient to reassure the most 

 timid and sensitive as to the danger of the collision of the earth 

 with a comet. 



5. Popular opinion is universal and emphatical in all countries 

 that comets influence the temperature of the seasons, and although 

 popular opinion is not always infallible, it is not to be lightly 

 rejected. 



All the world knows that the excellence of the celebrated vintage 

 of 1811 was by common consent ascribed to the influence of the 

 splendid comet which appeared in that year. The " wine of the 

 comet" was long known, and bore a high price in the market. 

 The abundant harvest of the same year was ascribed unanimously 

 to the same cause. 



An article appeared in the " Gentleman's Magazine," in 1818, 

 upon the supposed influences of the comet of 1811, in which it 

 was affirmed that, although the winter was mild, the spring 

 humid, and the summer cold, the sun scarcely appearing with 

 force sufficient to ripen the fruits of the earth, yet such was the 

 effect of the comet that the grain harvest was exceptionally 

 abundant, and certain sorts of fruits, such as melons and figs, 

 were not only produced in unusual quantity, but had a delicious 

 flavour. It was further observed wasps were few; that flies 

 became blind, and disappeared early, and that the frequency with 

 which women produced twins was especially remarkable ! It 

 even happened that the wife of a shoemaker at Whitechapel had 

 four children at a birth ! ! and all these marvellous effects were 

 ascribed to the comet. 



A.s to the question of the influence of comets on the tempera- 

 ture of the seasons, it is one of the most simple and most easy of 

 solution. In all observatories, the appearances and motions of 

 the comets are recorded. The average daily and monthly and 

 yearly temperatures of the weather are also exactly observed and 

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