142 A. W. Wright— Polarization of Light from Comet 6, 1881. 
Art, XXVIII.—The Polarization of Light from Comet b, 1881 ; 
~ by ArtHuR W. WricHrt. 
PoLARIscoPic observations of the comet were made on the 
evenings of June 25 and 26, which gave faint indications of the 
existence of polarization, but with the instruments then used it 
was not possible to ascertain satisfactorily either its character or 
amount. The state of the sky was not very favorable for ob- 
servation until the evening of June 29, when a method of 
meter, and also independently by means of a double-image 
prism len before the ordinary eye-piece of the telescope 
is was attached to the instrument. The two images 0 
the comet as the prism was rotated were easily seen to have 
different intensities in certain positions corresponding to polari- 
zation in a plane situated as above described. As seen with 
this instrument the fainter of the images appeared considerably 
shorter than the other as if the light coming from toward the 
extremity of the tail were more strongly polarized than that 
from points near the nucleus. But this was possibly an 
* Reports on the Total Solar Kelipses of July 29, 1878, and January 11, 1880, 
pp. 264-267. 
