8 



KNOWLEDGE • 



[Nov. 4, 1881. 



)«il>ly, if so many w(>ro not conipollfd (without niUKical 

 talent to help them) to waste many years of their life 

 ill the weary work of " practi.sing," we might have 

 liettor opportunities of learning wliut WDmen are capalile 

 of in other ways than wt- are actually allbrdetl. Music, 

 at any rate, is one of the weak points of modern femi- 

 nine education, if not its worst feature. Even as musi- 

 cians, women would be far likelier to show power, if only 

 those who possessed aptitude for music received a musical 

 training. How can the ri-ul musician among tifty girls 

 get any chance, when she has to go through, with the 

 forty-nine who are not musicians the weary music-killing 

 work of our present system of so-called musical train- 

 ing i (Is not this matched, however, liy the existing 

 systems of classical and mathematical training for 

 boys, irrespective altogether of any aptitude for clas- 

 sical or mathematical work ?) 



We come next, in M. Delaunay's paper, to the more 

 important question of cranial capacity and form ; for 

 certainly (setting aside, of course, i)hrenological absurdi- 

 ties), the shape and size of the brain are more likely to 

 indicate mental and moral capacity correctly, than are 

 the shape of the feet, the tone of tlie voice, and the 

 muscular development As, however, my limits are 

 already exceeded, I leave the rest of M. Delaunay's paper 

 to another occasion. 



So far as we liave gone, M. Delaunay's arguments 

 remind us, more than we should have thought possible 

 in a scientific brochure, of the reasoning in a humorous 

 article which appeared a year or two ago in the Ifew York 

 Times, wherein it was gravely argued that the inferiority 

 of woman to man is proved conclusively by women's habit 

 of sitting on the ground to take off, or to put on, their 

 shoes and stockings. In fact, I am not sure that M. 

 Delaunay might not find more in favour of his theory ill 

 this argument than in any of his own that have thus far 

 been considered. 



COMETS. 



THE year which was to have seen the end of the world, 

 because of planetary conjunctions and perihelion 

 passages, because Mother Shipton had said so (or was said 

 to have said so), and because the ascending gallery in the 

 Great Pyramid is 1882 inches long (so that the year 1882 

 is to introduce a new era), has been remarkable in astro- 

 nomical annals for the number of comets which have been 

 seen. Already six hare been numbered, and the year is 

 not over yet. Something still remaining — more, indeed, 

 than we are always ready to admit — of old superstitions 

 respecting comets, has led many to regard the coincidence 

 as full of meaning. Others, not quite so credulous, have 

 supposed that though comets may not come in flights of 

 half-a-dozen together to portend the end of the world, they 

 may yet affect our weather in some way ; perhaps directly, 

 as the moon is supposed to do (with very little reason) ; 

 perhaps indirectly, by acting on the sun. To the astro- 

 nomer the appearance of so many comets — some of them 

 large ones — has been full of interest, because he hopes by 

 the application of the new methods of research discovered 

 within the last quarter of a century to solve some of the 

 myst<!ries with which the whole subject is still fraught, 

 despite a number of interesting discoveries which have re- 

 cently been made. 



A brief inquiry into some of the facta which have been 

 discovered respecting comets, and a discussion of some of 

 those peculiarities which still remain among the greatest 

 mysteries of science, will probably prove acceptable at the 



pre.sont time, when comets attract so much interest and 

 attention. 



Klsewhero in the solar .system wo meet with relations 

 no( differing greatly in kind from those presented by our 

 own earth. W'e see a set of globular l>odi(^s revolving 

 around the sun in nearly circular orbits, nearly in one 

 plane, and all in the same direction ; we find that these 

 globes rotate upon their axis — still in the same direction ; 

 they have, apparently, atmospheres proportioned to their 

 dimensions ; and many of them are attt^nded upon by 

 bodies resembling our own moon. And therefore, without 

 enti-ring upon the vexed question of the plurality of worlds, 

 we are alilc to pronounce that, i/' these globes are inhabited, 

 dwellers upon them have, like us, their years, their days, 

 their sea.sons ; a sun — rising in the east and .setting in thi; 

 west ; twilight and moonlight ; air and vapour ; winds and 

 rain ; all things, in fact, as it would seem, necessary to 

 their comfort and convenience. Here and there — as in 

 the zone of asteroids and the rings of Satuni — we meet 

 with novelty of arrangement or configuration ; but even 

 then we find a stability, either of figure or motion, which 

 renders such objects comparable, so to speak, with those we 

 are accustomed to. 



I'lUt with comets the case is wholly different When we 

 have said that these objects obey the law of gravity, we have 

 mentioned the only circumstance — as it would appeatr — in 

 which they conform to the relations observed in terrestrial 

 and planetary arrangements. And even this law— thi- 

 widest yet revealed to man — they seem to obey half un 

 willingly. We see the head of a comet tracing out 

 systematically enough its proper orbit, while the comet i 

 tail is all unruly and disobedient 



The paths followed by comets show no resemblance 

 either to the planetary orbits or to each other. Here we 

 see a comet travelling in a path of moderate extent and 

 not ^ery eccentric ; there another which rushes from a 

 distance of two or three thousand millions of miles, ap- 

 proaches the sun with ever-increasing velocity until nearer 

 to him than parts of his own corona (as seen in eclipses), 

 sweeps around him with inconceivable rapidity, and makes 

 off again to where the aphelion of its orbit lies far out in 

 space beyond the most distant known planet, Neptune. 

 Some comets travel in a direct, others in a retrograde, path ; 

 a few near the plane of the earth's orbit, many in planes 

 showing every variety of inclination. Some comets regu- 

 larly return after intervals of a few years ; some after 

 hundreds of years ; others are only seen once or twice, and 

 then unaccountably vanish ; and not a few show by 'tht; 

 paths they follow that they have come from interstellar 

 space to pay our system but a single visit, passing out 

 again to traverse we know not what other systems or 

 regions. 



The ancients believed comets to be of the same nature 

 as meteors, or shooting stars — either in the earth's atmo- 

 sphere, not far above the clouds, or, at all events, much 

 lower than the moon. These views are, liowever, much 

 less ancient than the more correct views maintained by 

 the Pythagoreans. Their doctrine was that comets are 

 planetary objects, having long periods of revolution. From 

 whom this opinion was derived is uncertain. Like other 

 opinions attributed to Pythagoras, it was doubtless ob- 

 tained froin Eastern philosophers ; but of what country — 

 whether Egyptian, Persian, Indian, or Chakhean — we have 

 no means of learning. Apollonius, the Myndian, ascribe.; 

 the opinion to the Chalda?ans. He says they spoke of 

 comets as of travellers penetrating far into the upper 

 (or most distant) celestial spacer Seneca and Pliny held 

 similar views, exhibiting in this respect says Humboldt, 

 the imitative facultv of the Romans. But the Greek 



