48 A. W. Wright—Gases from the Meteorite of Feb. 12, 1875. 
solar rays, and a change of electrical potential, with consequent 
discharges, would be produced by the motion of the gaeoas 
molecules from the nucleus oes from each other, as also by t 
change in the distance from the sun, provided either of the 
ies possessed an electrical charge, as can hardly fail to be 
the case. 
There is another supposable cause for the light which sug- 
gests itself, however, in the property of gaseous bodies, that 
they emit light of the same pee as that which they absorb. 
It is not altogether improbable that the solar radiations ay 
sorbed by the apse matter, though for the most parte con 
eras results have thus an important bearing upon the 
theory of comets and their trains, and if this meteorite may be 
taken as a representative of its class, they warrant the follow- 
ing conclusions 
e stony meteorites are distinguished from the iron ones 
by having the oxides of carbon, chiefly the di-oxide, as their 
characteristic em: instead of hydrogen 
. The n of carbon di-oxide given off is much 
greater. at ‘ah uy : high temperatures, and is sufficient to 
mask the hydrogen in the spectrum 
3. The amount of the gases contained in a large meteorite, or 
a cluster of such bodies, serving as a cometary nucleus, is suf: 
ser to form the train as ordinarily observed. 
The a of the gases is closely identical with that 
of fever of the comets. 
may aie a comet, then, as merely a meteorite of con- 
eAerakis magnitude, or a swarm of many of lesser size, con- 
taining large quantities of carbon di-oxide, with some carbonic 
oxide and hydrogen, and giving off these gases under the influ- 
ence of solar heat. The gaseous substance in ane away 
forms the train, which is visible, partly by reflected sunlight, 
and partly by its own light due to some molecular or electrical 
action, which causes it to give the spectrum of the carbon com- 
pounds. The form of the train points to a repulsive influence 
of some kind, as has been shown y Prof. Norton,* but whether 
this is due to a specific action of the sun’s rays, as is held by Faye, 
or is electrical in its nature, as maintained by Zdllner, must 
still be regarded as a subject for investigation. 
* This Journal, IJ, xxix, 79, 383. 
