COMETS. 745 



It is to be regretted that the newspxpers should devote their columns to print, 

 ing such absurdities as these uttered by the astronomer(?) of Cleveland; the more 

 so because it is printed iij all seriousness as the result of real scientific investiga- 

 tion; whereas the entire article is not only absurd and untrue, but the fallacy of 

 the hypothesis was exposed so long ago that it has become part of every college 

 text-book on astronomy. 



At the present day two classes of men are engaged in the retailing of scien- 

 tific sensations. One class may be denominated the scientific fraud, it includes 

 those men who are utterly without scientific training and ignorant of what has 

 been already done, but who by vigorous shouting and the use of high-sounding 

 terms obtain among a certain class a great reputation for learning. Such men 

 may or may not believe the the vagaries they attempt to teach. 



The other class is composed of men more or less skilled in science, but who 

 spend their time in writing for the newspapers and beguiling the public with sen- 

 sational theories. Such men generally suggest much more than they assert and 

 avoid a direct statement. To this class belong those astronomers who keep a 

 convenient comet lurking about the outskirts of the solar system, ready at short 

 notice to plunge into the sun and create a conflagration that shall destroy us all. 

 It may be incidentally remarked that both classes secure more money and more 

 attention from the general public than hundreds of honest workers in science 

 whose work is for all time. It is needless to say that no one could ever suspect 

 the author of the before mentioned article to belong to the second of these classes. 



It is to be hoped that the time may come when such men may no longer be 

 able to gain the public ear by ranting over sensational hypotheses which have 

 been exploded years before. 



•COMETS; THEIR COMPOSITION, PURPOSE AND EFFECT UPON 



THE EARTH. 



BY PROFESSOR LEWIS BOSS, DIRECTOR OF DUDLEY OBSERVATORY, 



A few months since Mr. H. H. Warner, of Rochester, N. Y., founder of 

 the Warner Observatory, announced a special prize of $200 for the best essay on 

 "Comets, their Composition. Purpose and Effect on the Earth." One hundred 

 and twenty-five essays were sent in to Director Swift, of the Warner Observatory, 

 and after a careful review, the judges — Professor Elias Colbert, of Chicago, 111., 

 Professor H. A. Newton, of Yale College, New Haven, Conn., and Professor H. 

 M. Parkhurst, of New York City, — unanimously awarded the prize to the essay 

 signed " Hipparchus III," by Professor Lewis Boss, Director of the Dudley Ob- 

 servatory, of Albany, N. Y. Following is the full text : 



Though modern science has taught us much concerning the physical nature 

 of comets, no one has yet been able to construct a theory which is either complete 

 or free from objection. With these facts in view, and so far as possible within 



