W. A. Norton on Comets. 101 
ations of electric excitement under the influence of the sun i 
after the same manner that the earth’s atmosphere is effected by 
the sun. That an electric influence is directly exercised by the 
sun upon the upper regions of the earth’s atmosphere, or the photo- 
sphere of the earth, appears to me to have been established in my 
later papers on Magnetic Variations, published in former Nos. of 
is Journal. When repeated electric discharges take place in the 
higher and rarified regions of the atmosphere of the comet, or of 
that of the earth, they must have the effect, according to the re- 
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uld also be attended with electric discharges from the one ele- 
vation to the other. It is these electric discharges along these 
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ong Polar winter, and only at intervals display their coruscations 
€ skies of the temperate latitudes; where the changes of 
temperature are less, and the vaporous columns assume a more 
oblique position. On the other hand while a comet is approach- 
