234 



Intelligence and Miscellaneous Articles, 



Table I. — Comets whose Aphelion Distances are nearly equal to 

 5*20, the Radius of Jupiter's Orbit. 



Comets. 



Aphelion 

 distances. 



Comets. 



Aphelion 

 distances. 





4-09 

 4-81 

 5-02 

 5-28 

 5-29 

 5-32 



7. 1766 II 



5-47 

 555 

 5-64 

 5-75 

 5-93 

 619 



2. 1819 IV 



8. 1819 III 



9. Brorsen's 



10. D' Arrest's 



3. De Vico's 



4. Pigott's (1783) ... 



5. 1867 N 



11. Fav's 



6. 1743 I 



12. Biela's 









Table II. — Cornets whose Aphelion Distances are nearly equal t<. 

 9*54, the Radius of Saturn's Orbit. 



Comets. 



Aphelion distances. 



1. Petcrs's (184(5 VI.) 



9-45 

 10-42 



2. Turtle's (1858 I.) 





Table III. — Comets whose Aphelion Distances are nearly equal to 

 19-18, the Radius of Uranus's Orbit. 



Comets. 



Aphelion distances. 



1. 1867 I 



19-28 

 19-65 

 1992 





3. 1S66 I 





Table IV. — Comets whose Aphelion Distances are nearly equal to 

 30*04, the Radius of Neptune's Orbit. 



Comets. 



Aphelion 

 distances. 



Comets. 



Aphelion 

 distances. 



1. Westphal's(1852 1V.)... 



2. Pons's (1812) 



3197 

 33-41 

 34-05 



4. De Vico's (1846 IV.) ... 



5. Brorsen's (1847 V.) 



6. Hallev's 



34-35 

 35-07 

 35-37 



3. Olbers's (1815) 







The coincidences here pointed out (some of which have been no- 

 ticed by others) appear, then, to be necessary consequences of the 

 motion of the solar system through spaces occupied by meteoric 

 nebulae. Hence the observed facts receive an obvious explanation. 



In regard to comets of long period, we have only to remark that, 

 for any thing we know to the contrar5 r , there may be causes of per- 

 turbation far exterior to the orbit of Neptune. 



3. From what we observe in regard to the larger bodies of the 

 universe (a clustering tendency being everywhere apparent), it seems 

 highly improbable that cometic and meteoric matter should be uni- 

 formly diffused through space. We should expect, on the contrary, 



