14 .' PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. [aNNO 1665. 



of which came out of every one of their bodies, about the thickness of a horse- 

 hair : the insects all lived and moved after they were taken out. 



Evaporating away great quantities of his putrified dew in glass basons, and 

 other earthen glazed vessels, he at last obtained, as he remembers, above two 

 pound of grayish earth, which when he had washed with more of the same 

 dew out of all his basons into one, and evaporated to dryness, lay in leaves one 

 above another, not unlike to some kind of brown paper, but very friable. 



That taking this earth out, and after he had well ground it on a marble, and 

 given it a smart fire, in a coated retort of glass, it soon melted, and became a 

 cake in the bottom when it was cold, and looked as if it had been salt and 

 brimstone in a certain proportion melted together ; but, as he remembers, was 

 not at all inflammable. This ground again on a marble, he says^ turned 

 spring water of a reddish purple colour. 



That by often calcining and filtering this earth, he at last extracted about 

 two ounces of a fine small white salt, which, examined through a good micro- 

 scope, seemed to have sides and angles in the same number and figure as 

 rochpetre, (rock-salt.) 



The Motion of the second Comet predicted, hy the same Gentleman 

 (M, AuzoutJ ivho predicted that of the former. N" 3, p. 36. 



M. Auzout here observes, first in general, that the circumstances of this se- 

 cond comet are contrary to those of the former, in almost every particular : 

 such as, that the former moved very swift, but this latter rather slow : that 

 contrary to the order of the signs, from east to west ; but this following them, 

 from west to east : that, from south to north ; this, from north to south, so 

 far as observed : that, on the side opposite to the sun ; this, on the same side : 

 that, in its perigee at the time of its opposition ; this, out of the time of its con- 

 junction : that both the body and train of this latter were much more bright 

 and vivid than the former. • 



After this he descends to particulars, stating that he began to observe this 

 comet April 2, l665, which he continued but a few days following; from 

 which he infers, that the line hitherto described by it resembles a great circle, 

 as it is found in all other comets in the middle of their course. He finds the 

 said circle inclined to the ecliptic about 36° 30'; and the nodes, where it cuts 

 it, near the beginning of Gemini and Sagittary : that it declines from the equa- 

 tor about 26°, and cuts it towards the 11°; and consequently that its greatest 

 latitude must have been near Pisces, about March 24 ; and its greatest declin- 

 ation, towards the 25° of the equator, which will fall about April 11. He 



