400 SPECIAL 11ESULTS IN THE UEANOLOGICAL 



size, each exhibiting both a head or nucleus, and a tail. So 

 long as they could be observed they did not reunite, but 

 were moving onward separately and almost parallel to each 

 other. As early as the 19th of December, 1845, Hind had 

 remarked in the still undivided comet a kind of protuberance 

 towards the north : on the 21st, when observed by Encke at 

 Berlin, nothing resembling a division could yet be seen. 

 On the 29th, the division which had then taken 

 place, was first seen and recognised in North America; in 

 Europe it was not perceived until the middle and end of 

 January, 1846. The new smaller comet moved foremost 

 towards the north. The distance between the two was at 

 first 3, and afterwards (20th of February), according to Otto 

 Struve's interesting drawing, 6 minutes ( 669 ). The strength 

 of the light varied, so that the light of the gradually increas- 

 ing second comet was for a time greater than that of the 

 first or original comet. The nebulous envelopes surround- 

 ing each of the two nuclei had no definitely marked outlines : 

 in the larger comet there was even, towards the S.S.W., a 

 swelling of very faint light ; but the space between the two 

 comets was seen at Pulkowa to be entirely free from nebu- 

 losity ( 67 ). Some days later, Lieutenant Maury, at Wash- 

 ington, noticed with a 9-inch Munich refractor rays sent by 

 the larger older comet to the smaller new one, so that therf 

 was for a time a sort of bridge-like connection between them. 

 On the 24th of March, the smaller comet, from the increasing 

 faintness of its light, could but just be recognised. After- 

 wards the larger comet was alone seen up to the 16th or 

 20th of April, when it also vanished. I have described the 

 particulars of this wonderful phenomenon ( 671 ) so far as it 

 was possible to observe them : unhappily the act of separa- 



