Oct. 6, 1SS2.] 



• KNOWLEDGE 



309 



wards to the hips. Then the movements are repeated, and 

 so on, till the swimmer is tirtd, or thinks well to change 

 his stroke. 



{To he continued.) 



THE COMET. 



IX a letter to the Editor of the Scotsman (dated 

 Sept 24), Prof. Smyth, Astrom.mer-Rojal for Scot- 

 land, writes as follows : — Could there have been anything 

 more heartbreaking to all astronomical souls than the 

 uninterrupted cloud by day and cloud by night of our 

 unfortunate climate ever since the announcement of the 

 brilUant daylight comet of Monday, Sept, IS \ Tuesday, 

 Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and thus far 

 Sunday also, and their several nights, have each and all 

 been uniformly, utterly covered in with thick, impene- 

 trable clouds ; and yet we ought to confess that one other 

 thing might have occurred even so as to make that cloudy 

 appearance more aggravating, more grievously disappointing 

 stUl. That one overtopping culmination of misfortune 

 would have been, if the spectroscopic observers of Dunecht 

 and Nice had reported that the bright sodium lines of the 

 comet's nucleus were deflected towards the blue end of the 

 spectrum. For in that case the comet would have been 

 coming up to its perihelion ; and its necessarily ecstatic 

 display at that period, under fervid solar illumination, 

 might have been taking place precisely during these ultra- 

 cloudy days of the past week. 



But both of the spectroscopists of last Monday — the 

 one in France and the other in Aberdeen — declared that 

 the displacement of the lines was towards the red, the 

 meaning of which is that the comet was going rapidly 

 away from us,* that it had already passed its perihelion, 

 and was rushing off into distant, cold space, to cool down 

 its substance, which the incandescent-making heat of a 

 very near sun had just caused to give forth the bright 

 spectral lines noticed by the observers. And, in fact, by 

 the time that our terribly thick and moist clouds do at 

 length clear away from above our heads, the comet may be 

 so far away on its aphelion path from both the illuminating 

 sun and ourselves as to be barely visible. 



But what comet was it ? 



The little that was seen on Monday in Scotland is not 

 enough to give any clue: and no London journals, whether 

 scientific or political, which I have seen up to the end of 

 last week throw any light on the matter. But your paper, 

 sir, I am happy to say, did contain on Saturday a note by 

 cable from America, which, if fully correct, is of most pro- 

 found import. Indeed, nothing so important to all man- 

 kind has occurred Ufore through 1800 years at least of 

 astronomical history :t and there is this prospect of the 

 statement being true, that it is given under the name of 

 Professor Lewis Bo<s, one of the most able and learned 

 mathematical astronomers of the Union, and we may say 

 now (such has been the rapid progress of astronomy during 



• It by no means follows that because a comet is receding from 

 the earth it is recedins also from the snn. A comet mav bo ap- 

 proaching the sun rapidly when receding rapidly from the earth. 

 Or it may be passing its perihelion when so receding from us. But 

 as the comet's apparent distance from the sun was increasing at the 

 time, it ia more probable that the comet had passed its perihelion. 

 — El). 



t There is a reference here, we imagine, to the Grand Gallery in 

 the Great Pyramid. Of course, the comet seen near the sun m 

 Sept. 19 indicates the approaching end of the Christian Dispensa- 

 tion. Possibly it may be a return of the star seen by the Wise Men 

 at the time corresponding to the other or northern end of the Grand 

 Gallery.— Ed. 



the last few years in that country) of the irorld. He is 

 said then to have concluded from his observations that the 

 comet of last Monday was the comet of 1680 and 1843. 

 A comet on each of these occasions was recognised to have 

 passed closer to the sun's surface than any other known 

 comet But why has it come back so soon 1 



In 1843 it appeared to be moving in an orbit of one 

 hundred and seventy years, and yet it came back in 1880, 

 or in only thirty-seven years ! That was startling enough, 

 though only looked on by the world as a case of failure of 

 astronomical prediction. But having gone off in 1880, on 

 an understanding generally come to by the best astronomers 

 in Europe, North America, Rio Janeiro, the Argentine 

 Republic, and Australia — at all which latter places it had 

 been well observed — that it was not to return before thirty- 

 seven years (and other comets, such as Halley's and Encke's 

 keep to their times of revolution round the sun nearly uni- 

 formly for centuries), behold this comet has returned now, 

 on the strength of your cablegram from America, in two 

 years ! 



In which case, who can say whether it may not be back 

 again from space in a few months ; and then, not merely to 

 graze close past, but actually fall into, the sun, which is so 

 evidently increasing its hold upon it at every revolution ? 

 Wherefore we may be near upon the time for witnessing 

 what effects will be produced when such an event takes 

 place in the solar system, as astronomers have only dis- 

 tantly speculated on, and no mortal eye is known to have 

 ever beheld. But we mu.st be calm, patient, philosophical, 

 judicial ; for the calculations involved are excessively 

 tedious and difficult when much accuracy is required. The 

 whole of the observations, too, require to be gathered in 

 from all parts of the world, and extensive comparisons of 

 the varying results of different computers have to be made, 

 examined, and discussed with the greatest severity ; for 

 how often are there not two appearances very like each 

 other in the immensity of nature, and yet not the same 

 identical thing' — I am, ia C. P. S. 



[We venture to make a slight remark on the above. It 

 relates merely to a matter of detail. Whatever the comet 

 seen on Sept 18 may have been, it certainly was not the 

 comet of 1843 or of 1880. Professor Boss may be a very 

 able astronomer : but, if so, he is a very careless man. We 

 fear the same must be said of Professor Smyth. For it 

 may be shown (we shall show it next week) that the comet 

 of 1843 or 1880 could not, in any part of its orbit, be seen 

 from the earth's place on or about Sept. 18 trithiyi two 

 degrees of the position in which the comet near the sun was 

 acliially seen that day. Kor was it a matter of calculation 

 or requiring nice study, or " calm, patient, philosophical, 

 judicial investigation," to show this. Any one who has 

 clear ideas of the actual relations of the solar system ought 

 to be able to see in a few moments that the whole orbit of 

 the comet of 1843, seen from the place of the earth on 

 Sept 18, would lie far north of the place in which Thollon 

 saw tlie new comet on that day. — En.] 



ViCTOSiA HAtL. — It is sometimes said that London working men 

 are less interested in science than the mill-hands of our northern 

 manufacturing towns. If this is so, it is probably, in part, bocanso 

 their attention has not been adequately directed to it. An e.\[ieri- 

 nioutal course of lectures has been planned by the Committee of 

 the Victoria Hall, Waterloo-road, to bo lieUi im Friday evenings, at 

 one penny admission, or sixpence and threepence for seats in the 

 balcony. The first is to bo by Mr. W. I.nnt Carpenter, on '•Tele- 

 grams, and How they Come," on the 2',>th inst., followed, on Oct. 0, 

 by one on "The Dog as the Friend of Man," by Mr. .\rthnr Nicols. 

 F.G.S., and on Oct. 13 by one on " .\ Telescopic Visit to the Moon." 

 by Mr. Mattien Williams, If these tuccccd, it is proposed to extend 

 the course. 



