Astronomy. 127 
_In a communication made July 27, 1846, (Com. Ren., xxiii, 183,) Lau- 
gier announces as a result of further investigations among Biot’s extracts, 
the discovery of three earlier returns of this comet, viz: (1.) A. D. 
olutions of 77°25 years. (3.) A. D. 4 
1378, twelve revolutions of 77°25 years. In addition to the usually 
ized perturbing causes, which may have operated in producing this 
i et. On 
, (Boston, pp. 352, 12mo,—the 18th No. of a series well known as 
furnishing, together with much other important matter, the most reliable 
statistics of our country,) comprises a very valuable catalogue, by Prof. 
Peirce of Harvard University, of the comets whose orbits have been com- 
puted. The catalogue by Rev. Mr. Hussey, intended to include every 
comet, whether the elements of its orbit were known or unknown, (Lond. 
and Edin. Phil. Mag., vols. ii, iv, vii) appears not to have been con- 
tinued later than the year 1744. The catalogue by Olbers and Schu- 
macher, (republished from Schumacher’s Astronomische Ab ungen, 
in the Quar. Jour. Sci. Lit. and Arts of Roy. Inst., Lond. vols. 16, 17, 
20,) ended with May, 1825. Since that time, the investigations of as- 
have determined the elements of several comets previously 
en- 
. To collect and arrange these, adding all those discovered up to 
the present time, was a work much needed, and Prof. Peirce has rendered 
His catalogue comprises I, a chronological arrangement of the ele- 
of the new orbit, and into the first, second, third or fourth subdivision of 
the table as the inclination may be in the first, second, third ot fourth 
i idges the labor of deter- 
mining whether any newly-discovered comet is identical. with any of 
Prof. Peirce’s catalogue contains five comets whose elements have not 
i ted from ancient obser- 
f Ti 
vations, with such precision as they may warrant, viz: B. C. 137, 69, 12, 
A T 
