Verrier, and other observers. He not only shows that the orbits of meteors are quite coincident with those of comets, and that the same object may appear to us at one time as a comet, and at another as a shower of meteors, but he proves also by a highly-elegant mathematical calculation that the scattered cosmical masses known to us by the name of nebula would, if in their journey through the universe they were to come within the powerful attraction of our sun, be formed into comets, and these again into meteoric showers.
We should be carried away too far from our subject were we to enter fully into the consideration of this bold and ingenious theory of the Milan astronomer, supported though it be by a series of facts; but while we refer the reader to vol. xx. of "Naturwissenschaftlichen Volksbticher," by A. Bernstein, in which this subject, "die Räthsel der Sternschnuppen und der Kometen." is fully treated of in a very clear and attractive manner, we shall confine ourselves to the following short statement of Schiaparelli's theory:
Nebulæ are composed of cosmical matter in which as yet there is no central point of concentration, and which has not become sufficiently dense to form a celestial body in the ordinary sense of the term. The diffuse substance of these cosmical clouds is very loosely hung together; its particles are widely separated, thus constituting masses of enormous extent, some of which have taken a regular form, and some not. As these nebulous clouds may be supposed to have, like our sun, a motion in space, it will sometimes happen that such a cloud comes within reach of the power of attraction of our sun. The attraction acts more powerfully on the preceding part of the nebulae than on the farther and following portion; and the nebula, while still at a great distance, begins to lose its original spherical form, and becomes considerably elongated. Other portions of the nebulous mass follow continuously the preceding part, until the sphere is converted into a long cylinder, the foremost part of which, that toward the sun, is denser and more pointed than the following part, which retains a portion of its original breadth. As it nears the sun, this transformation of the nebulous cloud becomes more complete: illuminated by the sun, the preceding part appears. to us as a dense nucleus, and the following part, turned away from the sun, as a long tail, curved in consequence of the lateral motion preserved by the nebula during its progress. Out of the original spherical nebula, quite unconnected with our solar system, a comet has been formed, which in its altered condition will either pass through our system to wander again in space, or else remain as a permanent member of our planetary system. The form of the orbit in which it moves depends on the original speed of the cloud, its distance from the sun, and the direction of its motion, and thus its path may be elliptical, hyperbolical, or parabolical; in the last two cases, the comet appears only once in our system, and then returns to wander in the realms of space; in the former case, it abides with us, and accomplishes
