366. Scientific Intelligence. 
served as a background to the comet, was peculiarly favorable to the de- 
lineation of the fainter outlines and peculiar features of this splendid vis- 
itor, which was visible to the naked eye from August 19 to December 9, 
one hundred and twelve days. The whole period of visibility in the tel- 
escope extended from June 2, 1858 to March 4, 1859, an interval of two 
hundred and seventy-five days. One of the most successful workers in 
recording the phenomena of this comet was Professor G. P. Bond, and 
the sketches and drawings made at the Observatory of Harvard College 
form the main contribution to the splendid graphic illustrations which are 
a remarkable feature of this altogether remarkable production. The pains 
taken to insure a truthful representation of this comet of 1858, both in 
its eye- and telescope-features, few are better able than myself to appre- 
ciate; and I am able, from my own practical experience, to state that the 
success which has attended these efforts has been deservedly won by 
battling with greater difficulties than would probably be imagined by 
the uninitiated,’ 
‘The comprehensiveness of Professor Bond’s work will be at once re- 
cognized by an enumeration of the various sections into which it is divi- 
ed. They are as follows :— 
1. Figure and Position of the Tail; 11. Observations upon the Second- 
ary Tails; 111. Reduction of Observations upon the Figure and Position 
nvelopes; x11. The outer faint Veil; x1v. On the Direction and Initial 
Axis of the Tail; xv. Summary of the Contents of the Volume.’ — 
‘The sections 1 to vit relate to the figure, dimensions, and positions of 
the tail, from its first appearance on August 14, 1858, seventy-three days 
after its first discovery, when it was seen at Copenhagen by D’Arrest and 
at Vienna by Homstein, until the last recorded ubservation at Santiago, 
in Chili, by Moesta, on February 7, 1859. Arranged alphabetically un- 
er the same date, are the names of the several observers, sixty-seven in 
number, whose statements are given verbatim in the language in which 
they were written; but the value of this record is greatly enhanced by 
the occasional remarks of the author, who draws the reader's attention to 
points of special interest, and thus brings under notice the changes which 
actually occurred, as well as those which did not take place although 
anticipated from previous hypotheses. The reader is informed, in th 
introductory chapter, that from June 2 to September 8, the earth was on 
e north side of the plane of the orbit, and on the latter day crossed the 
line of nodes, giving an opportunity for observations on the figure of 4a 
tail projected on a plane at right angles with the comet’s orbit. After the 
tmaiddle of September the tail was presented in nearly its full-length 4 
portions; within a day or two of the perihelion passage on September 4 
the axis of the tail was brought to a position at right angles to the line 
vision, and, ten or twelve days later, when the comet had reached its least 
distance from the earth, its profile was almost precisely that of a section 
in the plane of the orbit. Professor Bond remarks, that where s0 little 1s 
