334 PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. [aNNO 1707' 



nearly in a right line with the two lowermost stars in the foot of Crater, which 

 are common to it and Hydra. 



Dec. 21, at about the same time it was removed about a deg. and half more 

 westward, and a little to the south ; the tail pointing still towards the heart of 

 Hydra, and appeared at the least 10 degrees long. — Dec. 22, at the same hour, 

 it was removed in the same direction, and about the same distance, as the night 

 before. Its tail still pointed to Cor Hydras, or a little above it, as the two 

 former days, and was rather longer than shorter : I thought it also appeared 

 brighter and larger ; its body being larger than any fixed star, except Sirius. — 

 Dec. 23, it was removed still in the same direction, and about the same 

 distance, as the day before ; the comet brighter, the tail as long as ever, and 

 pointed almost directly to Cor Hydras. — Dec. 24, 25, 26 ; all these 3 nights 

 were cloudy, so that I could make no observations. — Dec. 27, we found it 

 strangely removed from the place where it was: but it was still westward, and a 

 little to the south, as before. The body of the star was still brighter, and the 

 Cauda about it greater, and more bushy, and yet as long as before; it pointed 

 almost directly against Canis Major. Its body was among the stars of Argo. — 

 Dec. 28, at the same time, it was removed above 2 degrees towards the same 

 point, and come within 4 or 5 degrees of the most eastern stars in the bright 

 triangle in the hips of Canis Major. The moon shining, we could not so well 

 judge, either of the size of the body, or the length and bushiness of the tail. — 

 Dec. 29, it was strangely removed, and got before, not the eastern star only of 

 the bright triangle, but also the most northern. I think, at least, in this last 

 24 hours, it had moved 4 degrees. The moon shining bright, the tail could 

 not well be observed, yet still it seemed to point directly to Canis Minor. 



Th£ Universal Resolution oj Cubic and Biquadratic Equations^ as well Analytical 

 as Geometrical and Mechanical, By Mr. J. Colson.* N° 309, P« 2353. 

 Translated from the Latin, 



^ I. Of the general 7 x" =: 3px^ + Sqx + 2r 

 cubic equation j —3p^ + />' 



- m> 



* We find very few circumstances concerning this mathematician. Besides the present paper he 

 gave two others to the Royal Society, >iz. one in vol. 24, being an account of negativo-atfirmative 

 arithmetic, and the other in vol. 39. on the construction and use of spherical maps. He was author 

 of the British Hemisphere, being a map of a new contrivance, in the form of a half globe, of about 

 15 inches in diameter, but comprehending the whole known surface of the habitable earth, the citj 

 of London being the centre or vertex of the map. In 173()he publiihed a translation from the Latin 

 of Sir Isaac Newtoo'a Method of Fluxions and Infinite Series, with a large comment on the whole 



