The Louisiana Democrat. [volume] (Alexandria, La.) 1845-1918, 1883-10-10

| manner OF breathing that causes
them to tumble, of the glorious res
direction when the transparent GOV
ering of the pupa breaks and he per
feet mosquito with wings and legs
and all its wonderful anatomy steps
forth to conquer and to de- in
cinnati Enquirer.
A COMET THAT HAS BEEN HERE
BEFORE.
The recognition Of the come,
which was discovered early in the
present month by Prof. Brooks as
the long expected come, of 1872 re
turning to visit once more the solar
system, is an event which possesses
much greater general interest than
at first appears. After looking in
vain for this comet for two or three
years, and having several false
alarms caused by the unexpected ap
pearance of other comets, the astron
omers, it seems, forgot the long look
ed for visitor, and for no more thar
= fortnight after it had actually come
ia sight they took it for a cotnp,et.
stranger. II is bearing down upoi
the sun ont of the northern heavens
and by mid winter will be seen shin
ing brilliantly in the evening sky
plainly visible, OF course, to the max
ed eye, but probably not presenting
anything like so grand appear ance rs
the great comet of last year.
Tbi verllication which the return
OF this comet gives of the calcuIa'
TORS of tue astronomers presents n
very striking instance of the knowl
edge that they obtained Of things
that are going on beyond the earth,
When this comet appeared in 1912
carefti observations and computa,
tions were made to ascertain jus,
what sOrt of a curve it made as it an
preached the sun, swung around il,
and again darted OF into space. This
curve was Of course a portion of the
comets orbit, but very SMALL por
ton, since no observations of This
kind could he made expect while the
comet was near enough TO the sun 10
he visible in telescopes. The astron-
omers measured this curve so accu.
rately that by applying the laws OF
gravitat'on they were able TO plot out
the orbit Of the comet through its
Whole extent, and to say that. al
though when it disappeared the hea.
yens had apparently swallowed it up,
yet it could not escape from the con
troll of the sun, and would be back
again in some 20 years. According
to recent calculations the comet was
due at perihelion in September, 1884.
Now that has been seen winging It's
way back, the astronomers are able
to say that it will reach its perihelion
some time in January next, about
eight months ahead of the calculated
time. But considering that it takes
the comet over 10 years to run the
round Of its orbit, and that the data
they had to work upon were slight,
The prediction of the calculators is to
ne regarded as remarkably aecu-
rate one. Chained by the laws OF
their being to this little, rvolving
globe, they have been able, by the
aid of mathematics, to follow the in
visible course of body which, having
shone for a short time in the evening
sky, disappeared entirely from sight,
and wended its way several thousand
millions of miles into space. Years
before it had ceased to move away
from the sun and the earth they were
able to say that it would turn and come
back again, and to-day we see the pre-
diction verified, for 10 the comet that
nearly three-quarters of century ago
faded out Of the sight of men is now
again visible, rushing sunward, and re-
Illuminating its train as if in celebra-
ton of the return from it's long journey
out into the realm of starlight IN.
Y. Sun.
The Washington Past pike . i