SELBORNE SOCIETY NOTICES 
19 
confirmation that they are of a gaseous nature, and cannot be solid bodies. A 
comet, I believe, is a body consisting of a phosphorescent or luminous transparent 
gas, the particles of which are attracted together into a convex-shaped mass like a 
lens, which is called the “ nucleus.” I believe that the nucleus is the whole of 
the comet. The tail, I have no doubt, is the rays of the sun, which have passed 
through the nucleus and are extended beyond in the shape of a fan, just like the 
rays of light that have passed through the lens of a bull’s eye lantern. It is 
known that the tail is invariably turned exactly in an opposite direction from the 
sun. It is impossible to account for this circumstance unless the tail is the sun’s 
rays that have passed through the comet. It may be observed that the extreme 
end of the tail, or rays, takes a slight sweep back from the direction of the orbit 
in which the comet is moving. This arises from the swiftness of the motion of 
the nucleus, which has moved onwards during the time that the rays of light 
require to travel from the nucleus to the end of the tail, so that at the moment that 
we look at the rays at the end of the tail the nucleus has moved forward from the 
place it occupied at the moment when those identical rays passed through it. All 
the intermediate portion of the rays has moved on proportionately, so as to form a 
perfect curve. I personally watched Donati’s splendid comet night after night in 
the summer of the year 1858, and can vouch for having seen the bright star 
Arcturus shine through the centre of that comet’s tail with undiminished lustre, 
showing that the tail has no substance at all. 
If, as I have no doubt is the fact, a comet breaks up, sometimes into two or 
three comets, and sometimes into a swarm of meteors, or shooting stars, it may be 
asked how is it that we never see shooting stars with tails? We know that 
comets have divided into several parts, and that each part has had a tail, as 
witnessed in Biela’s comet. The answer to this question is very simple. We 
only see shooting stars at night, and we only see them when they are so close to 
us that the rays of the sun, which is on the other side of the earth, cannot possibly 
reach them. If we could see them in the day time we should certainly see them 
with tails. 
Hampstead. Peter Hastie. 
December 13, 1902. 
SELBORNE SOCIETY NOTICES, 
Council Meeting. — The usual monthly meeting of the Council will be 
held at 20, Hanover Square, W., on Wednesday, January 14, at 5.30 p.m. 
New Members. — Thos. Scard Reddrop, Esq., Marlborough ; Geo. Turvill, 
Esq., Alton; Mrs. Challinor, Colwall ; P. Anderson Graham, Esq., Tavistock 
Street; Mrs. Brock, Hampstead; J. Male, Esq., Thornton Heath; E. Fletcher, 
Esq., Norbury; Douglas Anderson, Esq., Hampstead. 
Donations and Subscriptions. — The Council beg to acknowledge the 
following Donation: Rev. A. R. Miles, 2s. 6d. Subscriptions over 5s. : Joseph 
Rawlins, Esq., 10s. ; T. G. Timbrell, Esq., 10s. ; Geo. Turvill, Esq., 10s. 
NEWS FROM THE BRANCHES. 
Croydon. — The monthly meeting of this Branch was held at the North Park 
Ladies’ College, when Mr. N. F. Robarts, F.G.S., lectured on “The Geology 
of Croydon,” the lecture being illustrated by lantern slides specially prepared by 
Mr. Abraham Flatters of Manchester. Mr. Robarts referred to the chalk as 
being the bed-rock beneath Croydon, whilst above it next in turn the Thanet 
Sands, Warwick Beds, Oldhaven Beds, London Clay, and the well-known beds 
of gravel which cover so much of the west and north of Croydon. Reference 
was made also to the fossil remains which have been discovered in each formation, 
and to the aboriginal races who left their flint axes and celts and other implements 
in the gravels, and in such places as the Waddam caves, which have been recently 
discovered. Scenic pictures of various sections in the neighbourhood were 
thrown upon the screen, serving to show the various types of scenery given rise 
