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THE 



AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SCIENCE. 



[THIRD SERIES.] 



Art. YII. — Ihe Story of BielcCs Comet, a Lecture delivered by 

 H. A. Newton, March 9, 1874, at the Sheffield Scientific 

 School of Yale College* 



Ladies and Gentlemen : I ask you to listen to-night to 

 the story of Biela's comet. I will weave into the story enough 

 of astronomy to justify its place in this course as a lecture. 



The story has none of the interest which human passions 

 give to stories of human life, and yet if it shall not be to you 

 as interesting as a novel, it will be because I shall spoil the 

 story in telling it to you. It is a true story. In other words, 

 I mean to separate sharply what we know from what we guess. 



One hundred and two years ago last night (March 8, 1772) a 

 Frenchman named Montaigne, in the provincial City of Limoges, 

 found a comet. He did what little he could with his small 

 telescope to mark its place in the heavens, but it was not much 

 that he could do. The comet was a faint one, not to be seen 

 by the naked eye, and had a short tail, only one-eighth as long 

 as across the disk of the moon. He did not dream that that 

 little foggy speck of light was to be one day one of the most 

 interesting comets in the solar system ; in fact, that he himself 

 was to be known to history only for having first seen it. This 

 little comet is the hero of my story — a hero from humble life. 

 Montaigne wrote to Paris of his discovery, and they saw it 

 three or four times before it disappeared. 



* The renewed interest id Biela's comet created by the great shower of meteors 

 on the 27th of November last, justifies giving space for this lecture. — (Eds. Jour. 

 Science.) 



Am. Jour. Sci — Third Series, Vol. XXXI, No. 182. — Feb., 1886. 

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