Comets. 381 



Gometographie ; ou Traite Historique et Theoretique des Gometes. 

 This work, which for the industry and labour bestowed upon it, 

 has few equals, has been the astronomer's text-book on the 

 subject of cometary history from the period of its publication 

 down to the present day. No attempt has ever been made to 

 supersede it, the utmost that has been done having been to 

 supplement it by the reproduction in Europe of certain Chinese 

 accounts not accessible in the time of Pingre. 



Our present catalogue is of course based upon Pingre's, but 

 in the preparation of it much material assistance has been de- 

 rived from Mr. Hind's scholarly catalogue, commenced in the 

 Companion to the Almanac for 1859, but, unfortunately, since 

 interrupted. Brevity being an essential pre-requisite, we have 

 been obliged to omit much that was interesting, and to confine 

 our attention to necessary facts and figures, only giving a 

 limited number of references. 



It may be convenient to make a few remarks on the Chinese 

 observations to which such constant reference is made. They 

 were originally Buropeanized by MM. Couplet, Gaubil, and De 

 Mailla, Jesuit priests at Pekin, who made very good use of their 

 opportunities of benefiting science. De Mailla's MSS. were 

 published at Paris in the last century, but the MSS. of Couplet 

 aud Gaubil are still unpublished. Within the last twenty years 

 M. E. Biot has doue some service by the translation of sundry 

 Chinese catalogues of comets and meteors, and it is not impos- 

 sible that, as our intercourse with that remarkable people be- 

 comes greater, further sources of information may be opened 

 to us. 



1770+. St. Augustine has preserved the following extract 

 from Varro : — " There was seen a wonderful prodigy in the 

 heavens, worthy to be compared with the brilliant star Venus, 

 which Plautus and Homer, each in his own language, call the 

 ' Evening Star/ Castor avers that this fine star changed colour, 

 size, figure, and path ; that it was never seen before, and has 

 never been seen since. Adrastus of Cyzicus, and Dion the Nea- 

 politan, refer the appearance of this prodigy to the reign of 

 Qgyges." — (De Civit. xxi. 8.) This description, such as it is, 

 may be presumed to be that of a comet, but no further particu- 

 lars have been preserved. 



1194+. On the fall of Troy, we are told by Hyginus, a con- 

 temporary of Ovid, that Electra, one of the Pleiads, quitted the 

 company of her six sisters, and passed along the heavens to- 

 wards the Arctic Pole, where she remained visible for a long 

 time in tears and with dishevelled hair, to which the name of 

 ''comet" is applied. — (Freret, Acad, des Inscript. x. 357.) 

 What we are to understand by this is doubtful, but it may re- 

 late to a comet. 



