ASTRONOMICAL NOTES FOR MAY, 1882. 



35 



comets continue to strike the sun, the longer can man inhabit the earth. We 

 thought it the province of science to dispel superstition and fear; and least of all 

 did we think that astronomy would be made use of as an engine of terror. We 

 put in a plea for pure astronomy, and urge that its truths be not tampered with by 

 sensationalists. Interstellar matter perpetually bombards the sun, each collision 

 of meteoric hail sending to earth life-sustaining heat. We trust this cosmic war 

 will not cease, and that at least one comet per week will dash on the sun during 

 the next ten thousand years. 



ASTRONOMICAL NOTES FOR MAY, 1882. 



BY W. W. ALEXANDER, KANSAS CITY, MO. 



