The Milan exchange. (Milan, Gibson County, Tenn.) 1874-1978, 1880-02-26
Professor Proctor on Comets and Me-
teOrs.

The lecturer, whose remarks were il
Illustrated by number of large paint
ings, opened his illusions to cometary
peculiarities by describing the success
full efforts made by Herschel to define
the course of the comet of 1850 as that
which Newton had laid down for it.
Newton predicted that this comet on its
temperance would pass very near the
sun, and the result showed him to be
very correct, the body passing within
one hundred and sixty thousand miles
of the sun, the repulsive power of the
latter overcoming its power of gravity.
The comet of the year 1852 provided
Newton's pupil, Haley, with an oppor-
tunity to deal more thoroughly with
the questions of gravity as affecting the
movements of comets, and, after con-
sidering it thoroughly, he predicted that
the comet would reappear in the year
1859, a date long after his death. In
the meantime other astronomical math-
ematicians had to deal with the subject,
and they, realizing that the force of the
disturbing influences of the planets Ju-
piter and Saturn would delay the COM
cts temperance, placed the date
of lis return in 1885. Three
separate calculations were made, and
the comet reappeared within the time
covered by them. The question of what
formed the tail of the comet was treated
at considerable length by the lecturer,
who Endorsed Herschel's theory that it
consisted of clouds of vaporous matter
which tho ,1ouorc Of tho cum dyoxo FROM,
the head of the comet. Other theories
had been formed, and one by Professor
Tyndall, which the lecturer explained
fully with familiar Illustration, that the
tail was a negative shadow of the head
of the comet, had attracted great deal
of attention, though it had not been
received by astronomers as correct.
Considerable interest attacked to the
recent discovery that there is connec-
ton between comets and meteors--
bodies so small that the astronomer
Kcpler was indignant at the suggestion
that they were fit subjects for astronom-
ical scrutiny. The textbook from
which the lecturer studied when
boy disposed of the question of
meteors in short order, but, while
the information it conveyed was
given in confident manner, the only
comment to be made regarding it was
that it was all wrong. The periodicity
of the showers of meteors was referred
to, the great displays recurring at an in
terval of from thirty-three to thirty-follr
years, thus showing that the meteors
take about one-third of century to go
round the sun. Astronomers declined
to believe this at first, because this pc
rod implied that the meteors had an
orbit which carried them twenty times
more distant from the sun than is the
earth, but the discovery that the show
ers of meteors are coincident with the
tracks of the comets showed them to be
the repealed particles of those bodies
whose orbits they followed. The lectur-
er stated number of further interest
ing facts and discoveries connected
with what Humboldt described as
"pocket planets" and in his conclusion
again stated that, while large quantity
OF work had been accomplished in this
peculiar branchof astronomical reseai.ch,
the field of study was, and would prob
ably remain. practically inexhaustible.
Chicago Tribune.