VOL. XXXIII.J PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. ]5 



From these elements, by the help of Dr. Halley's general table for comets, 

 to which they are adapted, Mr. B. computed the places in the foregoing table: 

 which agreeing with the observed places as near as the observations themselves 

 agree with one another, show that it would be vain to attempt to determine 

 the true ellipse in which this comet moves, or its periodical revolution, from 

 so small a part of its orbit as that was, which it described between the first and 

 last of the observations ; this therefore must be left to posterity, especially 

 since it is certain, that this comet is not one of those of which observations 

 have hitherto been transmitted to us, sufficient to determine the situation of 

 their orbits. 



The nucleus of this comet was very little, for it appeared but of a small 

 diameter when first seen, though it was then above 3 times nearer to the earth 

 than the sun is at his mean distance. Its tail was then hardly discernible with 

 the naked eye, but through a telescope one might perceive a fiunt light ex- 

 tending itself above a degree from the body. 



The comet was in opposition to the sun Oct. ], when it had near 74° S. Lat. 

 and altered its longitude 2 signs in a day. About Oct. 3 it was in its perigee, 

 or nearest distance to the earth, being then almost 10 times nearer to it than 

 the sun is at his mean distance; and its apparent motion was then about 20° in 

 a day, and when Mr. B. last saw it, it was above twice as far off as the sun. 



Observations on the same Comet, made at IVitham in Essex. By Lord Paisley. 

 N° 382, p. 50. 



His lordship first discovered this comet Octob. 11, about 7 in the evening. 

 It then appeared as a star between the 4th and 5th magnitudes, but a haziness 

 round the head, and some light streaming from it on the side opposite to the sun, 

 induced him immediately to consider it as a small comet; which his observation 

 the next evening abundantly satisfied him of. The tail was visible on the 1 1th 

 to near a degree distance from the body ; it was of a dusky light, not unlike a 

 cloud growing darker and darker towards its extremity. The tail appeared 

 sharper, and not so much spread in the two following observations, and in the 

 last did not exceed one-third part of the first lensj^th; it was then of a much 

 darker colour, which made the difference between that and the head more 

 observable, the head yet appearing sufficiently bright. For some following 

 nights his lordship's observations were interrupted by cloudy weather, after 

 which the comet was so far diminished, as only to be known by its motion, its 

 appearance being no ways distinguishable from that of a small nebulous star. 



