26 A. C. D. CROMMELIN, ESQ., D.SC., F.R.A.S., ON 
firmed by modern photographs—the tail streamers, radiating 
like a fan from the nucleus, and the luminous masses which 
have the aspect of moving rapidly outwards. 
A group of Normans gazes at the comet in wonder “ Isti 
mirantur stellam.” In the adjoining panel of the tapestry 
Harold is represented quaking on his throne under the combined 
terrors of the comet, the landing of the Norsemen, and the 
threatened Norman invasion. 
A.D. 1145, April 19th. This return is of special interest, since 
the perihelion passage was on the same day as in the present 
year, and consequently the motion and behaviour of the comet 
are closely similar. Some interesting colloquial details are given 
by Hirayama. It was first seen «bout April 20th as a morning 
star ; by May 9th its tail was 5° long; about May 15th it passed 
the sun, and became an evening star. The next day the 
chronicler says, “The tail was 5° long, directed towards 
the east ; the end was concealed by clouds; I went out of the 
door and saw it.” On May 17th the tail was 20° long. On 
June 4th the head was seen, but the tail had disappeared, to the 
astonishment of Moronaga, a friend of the chronicler. The tail 
reappeared on June 8th, and moonlight is stated to have been 
the cause of its disappearance earlier. We have, however, in 
modern times some undoubted cases of the disappearance of 
tails for a time. It was followed in Japan till June 18th, and 
in China till July 14th. It will scarcely be followed so long 
with the unaided eye at the present return. I have myself no 
doubt that the intrinsic lustre of the comet has greatly declined 
since the middle ages, though it is right to say that Dr. Holets- 
chek, a great authority on the subject, takes an opposite view. 
The return of September, 1222, is one in which we (Mr. 
Cowell and myself) may justifiably take some pride, as we were 
the first to show that this grand object was Halley’s comet; 
the much feebler object of July, 1225, had previously been taken 
for it. - That of 1222 must have been a very striking sight ; the 
Japanese say that the head was white, and as large as the half- 
moon ; the tail was red, 17° in length. The European records 
state that in August a star of the first magnitude appeared, 
very red, with a Tong tail pointing to the zenith, Compared 
with it the moon appeared as if dead. and seemed to have no 
more light. The fact that both in Europe and Japan it was com- 
pared to the moon shows what a splendid object it must have been. 
Historians also give a glowing account of its splendour in 
October, 1301, when it appeared in mid-September in Gemini, 
and went through Ursa Major to Corona and Hercules, being 
