New-York tribune., 1841-12-07

strongly suspected BY Her.chell bu. which he died
before he had sroved. which srili more clearly ex
eHplifes the principle Of compensation. From
soEe-sf bis observations be led believa that
Herscheu was surrounded BY two rings al right
angle. to each other.
Having fni-hed v hat he'd to ,ay OF the planets
let nc eb-erve that WIN regard TO them the pro-
perties Of matter require no;hixg more than t:-t
The planet. move IL certain paths 50 iar as their
rcqui ernent. 90 the need not rcvoive upoH their
axes. and thus produce day and night. nor need
their axes sooD 4 their path arolad the Sua, thue
giving Jirth 20 the seasons: 40 atmosphere : de-
lauded, nor need there be any varieties OF surface.
All these arrangements Of ;he Solar Sy-rea which
have reference 20 the comfort aad we-7eing Of
the Inhabitants, have no crisin IN th- e,.eait.
properties Vi matter: they oWc taeir existence 70
principle above and beyord maticr aad vi nat
this Is | need Ret say.
There j. another class Of bodies to which ! WIZ
now ca. your attention. mean the Comets. [,
has been satisfactorily proved that they Ike
the planets members OF the S5ar system. held by
attraction in connection with the Sun. But th-y
have motion ard : character utterly and 10 ally
d.-iereat aorn that Of the planets. They move IN
path, different from those OF the paaeis Nm.c
the orbits of the latter are nearly circles. those o
Comet. are exceedingly elongated cIp,e>. para
Juas u hyper5oias. l. : easily -Aora that the
Comet. are composed of material substance ;ha;
they are pondera0!e bod es. When q Conner rush
es into ,h- Solar System. and comes near one Of
the planets. it show. the Influence OF attraction
which il would not do were II not material. Il
deyiaies from its course in obrdieu to the laws
of attraction. Let u now coasderJbo appearance
OF the>s bodies, winch In this respect differ greatly
from each other. OAc OF the tr-t marks i that
misty and nebHlous appearance winch always a.
tends them Sometime. they exhibit the appear
ance ike the spreading OF peacock'~ tail grow
ing more and more luminous towards the puclcns or
mead ~t the Comet: at other times they appear TO
oe merely bru h of misty hgh,. terminating in
very bright head. Others have no head and Others
appear attended By no tail. bur having the appear
a,ice ot a .mall nebulg or cloud often faint
be- seen only by telescopes Of great psvcr.
The inference drawn from these various ap-
pcararces Is Ihat some of the coIaeis, and perhaps
all are not composed Of solid matter but OF eX-
treuely aitenuatcd y.por OF air. ln.- i put be-
ycnd all doubt WIKI regard to many. 80 far
back the ,iz1e OF Seneca, extremely small stars
were seen through the very centre al their heads.
Ia 1875 Hsrschell oi the sixth magnl-
tudc. In 1892 comet made ia appearance.
through the centre of which Sir John Herschcli
10 whom | an indebted for ;he por,rnit OF the
comet now exhibit told me be -aw small
cluster u; stars OF he sjx;eeHth UagnltAte, which
require el.scopes OF the very highest power even
to render h-m visible Now. h- save. ths slight
-. fog the merest yapor would have reudsred
these stars invisible. He concludes that tie
comet Of 1882 was composed OF matter Infinitely
more a,teuuacd than air for computing t!- mag
ni;ude Of the comet, he found rhat II va, globe
whose diameter was $4,000 miles; hence these
,clescopic star. were seen through 10000 miles OF
This comeiic matter. So great a thickness oi ar
iatcrpos.d between the ~. and other STAR would
haye rendered them invisible.
Nor i the extreme tenu:iy proved in tsls way
alone. When comet has approached near the
,alte, of Saturn it has cassed no change III their
motion; il they had any considerable weight,
Saturn would certainly have betrayed il BY hi,
motion. Thus we conclude that comets pom
dcrabe matter but Of extreme levty.
There Is nothing more curious important than
the magnitude -f the fails-or appendages by
which comets are often attended. There on
record several whose tail. we're so large to
reach from the zenith to the horizon. In the mid
d., OF the last century the tail Of n comet was
actually measured which was larger than the d.
iance OF the Earth from the sun its length was
l20, 600 900 OF miles.
Various theories have been devised to account
for the existence OF these enanations from Tie
Comets but none are free from objections. One
Is this it observed, by APPian boeVe, that
these tails are alwavs turned away from the sun
nence ne concluded that the heat of the Comet
drove out "A vapor, which the body m~ved re-
NAMED behind aud formed the tail. But this will
nos bear comparison with the phenomena; tJr ii
s found that the tail is not always turned from the
sun: indeed nothing can be capncious than
these tails. One comet was observed with six tails
turned in different directions. In some cases they
will actually shapgc direction-turnlns them hrst
IN one way and then in another; 50 that by an as
Economical pleasautry not very inconsistent WIKI
the ruth. these comets may be SAID 10 rug their
tItlS. The are subject 10 such changes tnat the
icts are consistent with no hing that mas yct been
propolndcd We know that they are all formed OF
aeriorm matter, Tor stars visible through them
H. Is un interesting question what would be the re-
-ult if the Earth should come into collision with
the tail of u comet, the mpossibIiity OF which i
not eviicat when We consider the great length of
these uppeudages and their apparent law!esSness.
This shall consider the next evening.
There is one more point which wish to men
ton. In I770 comet aPPearcd, attended with
circumstances of great interest. \ French astron-
urer whose laburs | shall haze occasion to men
tion more fully hsreaiterl named Messler had
passion for observing comets. So great was his
avditv that Louis XIV. named nm the comet fer
ret He was - fortunate "a 10 detect great
number of new comets. On one occasion ie had
watched a long while for the expected appearance
of comet Nothing could exceed his excl encnr.
While thus in the heat OF his chase, his wife took
Ill and died. This interrupted his watchngs;
and soon u friend told him that the comet had been
discovered by another persoa. 1t would be ex-
uemely nard to say for which he moarved most
,hr loss OF MS wife, or OF -is comet. One OF his
comet. appeared IN 1870 within the orbit OF Jupi-
,cc. Lexcl!. celebrated math maticiaa. calcu.a-