C 5° 3 
VII. Elements of Captain Hall's Comet. By J. Brinkley, 
D.D. F.R.S. and M.R.I.A. and Andrew’s Professor of 
Astronomy in the University of Dublin. In a Letter addressed 
to W. H. Wollaston, M. D. V. P. R. S. 
Read, January 10, 1822. 
Observatory, Trinity College, Dublin, 
My DEAR Sir, October 15, 1821. 
I send you the elements of the comet observed at Valpa- 
raiso, the observations of which you were so kind as to send 
to me. 
We are indebted to the science of Captain Hall, for add- 
ing this comet to our catalogue. 
The observations appear to have been as exact as could have 
been made even in an established observatory, on a comet 
only visible so near the horizon, and so far from the meridian, 
and of which the light was probably faint both from its actual 
distance from us, and its apparent proximity to the sun. 
The comet on the 8th of April was distant nearly 1,4,1 
from the earth, the sun's distance from the earth being unity, 
and on the 3d of May, when last seen, about 2,64. 
This comet is interesting to astronomers on account of its 
small perihelion distance. In the Catalogue of M. Delambre, 
out of 116 comets, the orbits of which have been computed, 
there are only three that pass nearer the sun. 
It is interesting also, from the probability that it is the same 
comet that was observed in 1593, which agrees with this in 
