CLASSIFICATION OF COMETS. 
361 
families of Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune, accord far 
better, too, with this theory than with Schiaparelli’s. 
It is to be noticed, however, in conclusion, that we may also 
not unreasonably admit the possibility that comets may be, as it 
were, the shreds and fragments left from the making of our solar 
system and of others, since the sun and planets in their former 
nebulous condition and expanded forms would have had a power 
of capturing these wandering shreds which at present they no 
longer possess. 
