394 KANSAS CITY REVIEW OF SCIENCE. 



that Venus will begin her transit at a point 60° from the south point measured 

 toward the east, and will pass off the Sun at a point 61° from the south point 

 measured toward the west, that is, in the upper half of the southeast and south- 

 west quarters respectively. 



University of Kansas, October 10, 1882. 



SPECULATIONS ABOUT COMETS. 



The present brilliant comet has been the theme of all sorts of speculation, 

 and scientists seem to be at fault equally with the amateur. In fact, as they 

 know nothing definite about comets, those outside the charmed circle may be 

 pardoned if they, too, indulge in speculation. 



What seems to us inconsistent in these scientific theories is that, first assum- 

 ing comets to be composed of the same substance as all other planetary and stel- 

 lar objects, they disregard the laws of matter. For example, we are told that the 

 comet has passed so near the Sun as to be torn into several fragments that can 

 now be seen with powerful telescopes. On the other hand, the comet of last 

 year, we were advised, was in danger of coming within the attractive sphere of 

 the Sun and convulsing that orb by dropping into it such an addition to its fuel as- 

 possibly to burn up our world, or at least be fatal to many forms of life upon it. 

 But this fuel theory has by the same scientists been dissipated by the present 

 comet, which has actually, despite the telescopists, telescoped with the Sun, like 

 two railway trains, and bounded off into space again, minus a few splinters — and 

 even the splinters refusing to fall into the Sun. How are we non-scientific peo- 

 ple to gather wisdom from these contradictory hypotheses ? Both cannot be 

 true. • 



As cometary bodies of long periods do not belong to the solar system, it is a 

 question whether they ever really enter it. The Sun's distance from our earth 

 was never known until the parallax was calculated from the transit of Venus in 

 1 761. No cometary parallax is possible and the conjecture that comets enter the 

 solar system at all is not demonstrated. We mean that they never enter the 

 sphere of the attractive force of the solar system. If they did, like asteroids and 

 meteoric matter, they would remain, and frorn the law of attraction would fall in- 

 to the Sun did they collide with that orb as the present one is held to have 

 done. 



From the very theory of the solar system and the hypothesis that it is but 

 one of a universe of systems of suns and planets, we must conclude that these 

 systems constitute separate spheres of attractive force, and that while they meet, 

 they never commingle — else harmony would be destroyed and chaos reign where 

 order is the first law. Their presence then, as is held, within the attractive force 

 of the solar system is only apparent. The peculiar appearance of comets and the 

 change noted in their aspects can all be explained by the law of optics when we 



