740 
Analyses of Boohs . 
[December, 
The Doomed Comet and the World's End. By J. A. Westwood 
Oliver. London : Wyman and Sons. 
The author of this work sets out with the very laudable intention 
of preventing a panic being conjured up by occasion of the comet 
now or recently visible. He writes : — 
“ The present occasion offers an unusually good opportunity 
to the gentlemen who would fain see us all in a better world. 
Hitherto the fatal comet has always been going to strike our 
earth. This time it is to poke up the solar fires, and so cause us 
to be cremated where we stand. There is thus the great 
advantage of novelty. Then they can quote the statements of 
one of our ablest astronomers to bear them out. The fadt that 
he has contradicted what he has said goes for nothing. Alto- 
gether they have the chance of making a very good case of it, 
and if they do not — why, they are not at all up to their business.” 
We may here remark that as far as England is concerned, the 
solar fires would bear a very considerable “ poking up ” before 
we should have cause to complain. For ten years we have had 
nothing worth calling a summer, and the three winters of 1878- 
79, 79-80, and 80-81, have been more Russian than British in 
their character. 
To return : Mr. Oliver first examines the probability of the 
present comet, or, indeed, of any comet, falling into the sun. 
He informs us that the comet of 1843, which Professor Boss 
considers identical with the one now under consideration, passed 
within 80,000 miles of the sun’s surface, — a perilous proximity. 
As the present comet has returned much earlier than was antici- 
pated, it is probable that the great resistance which it must have 
encountered in traversing the solar “ corona ” must have notably 
shortened its orbit. If Professor Boss is right in his belief in the 
identity of the comets of 1840, 1880, and 1882, we may be, thinks 
our author, on the eve of witnessing a “curious consummation.” 
Next comes the question of the effeCl of a comet’s downfall 
upon the sun. Sir Isaac Newton was of opinion that the comet 
of 1680 would fall into the sun, after some five or six revolutions. 
“ Whenever that time shall arrive,” he declared, “the heat of the 
sun will be raised by it to such a point that our globe will be 
burned, and all the animals upon it will perish.” The author 
here remarks that Newton’s opinion was based upon erroneous 
notions regarding the nature of the comets. He held them to 
be “ solid, compact, fixed, and durable, like the bodies of the 
planets.” He contends that there is no reason to believe that 
“the heat of the sun will be greatly augmented by the addition 
of the comet’s heat to his own store.” He gives instances where 
comets have passed very close touswithout perceptibly increasing 
the heat of our atmosphere. 
He next inquires how much heat will be generated, supposing 
a comet were to fall into the sun by the sudden conversion of its 
