law of averages a good bright comet is now more than overdue, and it remains to be seen whether Halley's, when it attains its brightest developement in 1910, will come up to the required standard.
The extravagant language used by the old writers, and the bizarre character of the drawings which they have left behind them, render it doubtful how far it is wise to attempt to reproduce either their words or their pictures. I will therefore start no farther back than the middle of the 18th century in my endeavour to present the reader with authentic information and authentic pictures of some comets of special importance.
Although it is commonly considered that Donati's Comet of 1858 (presently to be described) is the most beautiful (though by no means the largest) on record, I cannot help thinking that De Chéseaux's Comet of 1744, with its many and very large tails, should receive the palm for striking beauty. The recorded descriptions of these tails are, however, not very detailed.
This comet was long under a cloud (metaphorically), because nobody seemed inclined to believe that the only drawing and description of it, with its 6 tails, known till recently to be extant, could be true, depending as it was supposed to do on the testimony of one man, and he of no particular astronomical standing, whilst other astronomers of repute mentioned the comet but made no allusion to its many tails. However, all distrust of this man's honesty must now be regarded as unreservedly withdrawn, ample confirmatory testimony having been brought to light as recently as 1864.
The circumstances under which this came about are sufficiently curious. Winnecke, in the year named, unearthed at St. Petersburg some records in MS. by the French astronomer Delisle, in which the fact of this comet having had several tails was clearly stated. He also found in an anonymous pamphlet printed at Berlin in 1744, and edited, it would seem, by the well-known mathematician L. Euler, a very detailed description of the comet and its multiple tail, fully confirmatory of De Chéseaux's account, and written by a
