two or three million miles of the coronal region, no retardation of
its immense velocity was perceptible, and it finally passed away in a
damaged condition, as before remarked, and has never since appeared.

Then the probable truth was perceived -- viz., that the three comets
(1843, 1880, and 1882) were not one identical body, but three separate
ones all traveling in the same orbit. It was found, too, that a comet
seen in 1668 bore similar insignia of relationship. The natural
inference was that these four bodies had once formed a single mass
which had been split apart by the disruptive action of the sun.
Strength was lent to this hypothesis by the fact that the comet of
1882 was apparently torn asunder during its perihelion passage,
retreating into space in a dissevered state. But Prof. George Forbes
has a theory that the splitting of the original cometary mass was
effected by an unknown planet, probably greater than Jupiter, situated
at a hundred times the earth's distance from the sun, and revolving in
a period of a thousand years. He supposes that the original comet was
not that of 1668, but one seen in 1556, which has since been
``missing,'' and that its disruption occurred from an encounter with
the supposititious planet about the year 1700. Truly from every point
of view comets are the most extraordinary of adventurers!

The comet of 1882 was likewise remarkable for being visible, like its
predecessor of 1843, in full daylight in close proximity to the sun.
The story of its detection when almost in contact with the solar disk
is dramatic. It had been discovered in the southern hemisphere only a
couple of weeks before its perihelion, which occurred on September
17th, and on the forenoon of that day it was seen by Doctor Common in
England, and by Doctor Elkin and Mr Finlay at the Cape of Good Hope,
almost touching the sun. It looked like a dazzling white bird with