128 Scientific Intelligence. 
M. Yvon Villarceau finds from his computations that this comet is @ 
periodical one, and that its time of revolution is about eight years 
ere is some probability of its identity with the comet observed in 
1678 and computed by Douwes. 
Second Comet of 1851, (Astr. Jour.)—On the first of August 
1851, Mr. Brorsen, at the Senftenberg Observatory, discovered a tele 
scopic comet in the constellation Canes Venatici. 
he following elements have been computed by Mr. C. W. Tuttle, 
second assistant at the Harvard Observatory, from the observations 
there taken August 23, 26, and 29. 
Perihelion passage, 1851, Aug. 26-46269 Gr. m. t. 
Lo . : 3 
ng. of perihelion, 11° 3’ 38” ) M. Eqx. ' 
node, : : 216 30 45 ee 0. 1851. 
Inclination, . ; ; ; 37 41 22 
Log. perihelion distance, . .  9-98876 oH 
i : i : Direct. , 
4. Aurora Borealis of September 29th, 1851.—The Auroral dis 
play of Sept. 29, 1851, was witnessed in the Southern States to a 
unusual extent. From a very interesting account of his observations 
on that occasion, which Prof. Lewis R. Gibbes has published in the 
Charleston Evening News, Oct. 8, 1851, we make the following & 
tract, referring to an hour when in this latitude, the streamers pas 
our zenith, and extended downward ten degrees or more below the 
coronal point. 
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higher than at first. At 8) 15™ a sketch of its position was taken- 
his moment proved to be nearly that at which the arch was most 
brilliant and best defined, and from this position it did not afterwards 
much vary. The vertex of its upper boundary was about 3° or 
the east of a vertical drawn through the Pole Star, and about h 
the Great Bear, which was about ten degrees to the west of the vertical 
abi. from this point downwards to the horizon, on the west it 
about two-thirds the distance from the arch to the Pole Star. ‘The afc! 
itself was of a bright white light, tinged with green, arising perhaps 
from contrast with the rose-colored rays, the whole forming @ reall 
magnificent spectacle, especially for our climate.” { 
5. Note on the Aurora Borealis of Sept. 29th, 1851; by Prof. J 
Le Conrez, (from a letter to one of the editors, dated Athens, Ge” 
