Weekly national intelligencer. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1841-1869, 1853-10-08
COMETS.
ron THE NATIONAL ISrzLLraxScER.

/
| comet appeared in the year l770 which was care
fully observed foy four months Pingre in calculating h
elements of it's orbit suspeced that its orbit might b
eiptical Mr. Lexsl found by his computations that III
period was about five years and half Dr. Burkhard
repeated all Of Lexels calculations and confirmed biz
conclusions. 1t has been again seen and it i,
called I" LezePs lost comet"
Dr. Brewster appears by the article comets, (Edin
Encyc endeayors to account for the disappearance by
the superstition that it united with the two planets
Ceres and Palas. He found that the node Of Lexeps
comet was exactly between the nodes Of Ceres and Paa
and Ceres and Palas have immense atmospheres There
is, however, prevalent theory. DR.. Burkhardt
found in tracing the orbit of this comet that must have
conectured that the action Of Jupiter may have altered
the form Of the comets orbit to make it invisible
In the words Of Byron
"a painless comet and curse,
The trouble of the universe"
sThough Encke's, Biea's, and Hallys do revolve,"
says Prof Nchol in fixed periods this circumstance
must be regarded in the light Of accident their orbits
having little assurance Of stability for they the
planetary paths every one of them may undergo the fate
Lexes which, by the action of Jupiter first twisted
from ts.diverging orbit into short eipse and then
after making consecutive revolutions round the sun,
that might have begun to deem itself denizen was
by the same planet twisted back again. and sent off,
never to revisit us on the chill abysses."
There is notion among some astronomers that the
satellites Of the planets comets arrested by the planets
and forced to reyove around them instead Of the
Prof Leslie, in Edinburgh Journal speaks of
as having once been comet " the approximation of
which to earth by raising stupendous tides would
have occasoned of those overwhelming commissions
which this globe appears to have repeatedly suffered
We continue to quote: But the satellite would
soon lose its fiery consistence and congomerate in n
solid mass and in its subsequent progress would
tits present earthly appearance the process of CONSOLE
dation goes on and when it shall have attained the u
term ofm he mo
our nights by her soft and silyery beams
BY Prof Leslies account the comet which smade our
moon" caused at first stupendous tide So the deluge
has been accounted for by blow from comet. Sup
pose the earth 1--WE quote from Simans Journa " sud
denly stayed checked in her durnal motion, the Pa
cifc would, it were, rush the Andes and
Aleghanes into the Atlantic, and the Atlantic at the
same time would be sweeping Europe, Asia, and
Africa Such is the precise effect to be expected if the
earth came in contact with comet
DR.. Hally attributes the of the food to blow
from comet. He suggested that change had been
effected the axis of the earth by the blow. Winston
almost proved that this the case and that be-
fore the food-before the earth thus rudey osted
the earths year exactly $50 days. having been push
ed off from the to increase the year 1861 days.
The fact mentioned in former paper, that Sir Isaac
Newton believed that comets fuel-bearers to the
sun, has been questioned On looking back the
thority in which the statement made, find that
quite right. Sir Isaac suggested not only this,
but also that the spirit which makes the pures and sub
tilest, and best part Of air principally from
comets that comets the conservators Of the mois
ture Of the planet that the fixed which had been
gradually wasted resuppIed with fuel by comets,
and acquired splendor and taken for
Dr. Hersche also considered instruments for
sauary purposes whether they the what
the loses in light and heat he would not affirm
deny"
We will close our article with quotation from Seneca:
81 not Of the common opinion, do take comet
to be sudden fire, but esteem it among the eternal
works of nature" S.. G.