446 Observations on Donates Comet of 1858. 



returns with trie greatest accuracy, and even calculated their 

 elements. 



In July, 1264, a cornet, whose tail was 100 degrees in 

 length, and of great brightness, made its appearance in the con- 

 stellation Cancer, passing through Auriga and Taurus ; its orbit 

 was below the plane of the Ecliptic, and its aphelion extended 

 twice the distance of Neptune. It disappeared on the night of 

 the 2nd of October, the night that Pope Urban IV. died. 



Hevelius, Fabricius, Lahmde, Pingre, and others have collected 

 numerous records of a remarkable comet which appeared in March 

 1566, which is described as blazing with uncommon splendour 

 like a globe of flame about half the size of the moon, and display- 

 ing a vast train of light. It first was seen near Spica Virginis, and 

 soon advanced with great rapidity and with a retrogade motion 

 (a movement contrary to the motion of the planets), towards the 

 north, as far as Ursa Major. It then advanced towards the 

 south, when it was gradually lost to view. It was seen for nearly 

 two months. Its position seems to have been marked with such 

 accuracy as the instruments used in those days permitted, and 

 it is said to have moved so rapidly as to have passed over 

 7 5 degrees from east to west, and 30 degrees from south to 

 north, in four days. It is considered to have been one of the 

 greatest comets ever seen. 



A body of such a nature and with such appearances, was, as 

 a matter of course, associated with some great disaster ; and 

 history has associated it with the death of two great German 

 princes, diseases in cattle, famine, pestilencp, and war. The 

 emperor Charles V. taking fright, abdicated his throne, imagined 

 that its appearance predicted his death, and actually made prepa- 

 rations for his final departure from this world ; but Kepler says 

 he survived some years after. Its distance from the sun, at its 

 aphelion, was 8,500,000,000 miles, while its perihelion pas-a^e 

 was within the orbit of Venus. This famous comet has received 

 the name of Charles V.'s. comet, from the fact of his abdication at 

 its advent. 



Our object, in referring to the history and appearance of only 

 two of these bodies, among some hundreds that have been record- 

 ed, is for the purpose of directing attention to their probable re- 

 appearance, and to contrast their movements with those of Donati's 

 comet of 1858, as the impression has extended that Donati's comet 

 was in reality the expected comet of 1566. As far back as 1*751, 



