We conclude, then, that the "cosmical current" which bears the solar system towards its unknown goal carries also with it nebulous ma.s.ses of undefined extent, and at an undefined remoteness, fragments detached from which, continually entering the sphere of the sun's attraction, flit across our skies under the form of comets. These are, however, almost certainly so far strangers to our system that they had no part in the long processes of development by which its present condition was attained. They are, perhaps, survivals of an earlier, and by us scarcely and dimly conceivable state of things, when the swirling chaos from which sun and planets were, by a supreme edict, to emerge, had not as yet separately begun to be.

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 1267: _Astr. Nach._, Nos. 1,172-4.]

[Footnote 1268: _Berichte Sachs. Ges._, 1871, p. 174.]

[Footnote 1269: _Natur der Cometen_, p. 124; _Astr. Nach._, No. 2,086.]

[Footnote 1270: _Annales de l'Obs. de Moscou_, t. iii., pt. i., p. 37.]

[Footnote 1271: _Bull. Astr._, t. iii., p. 598. The value of the repellent force for the comet of 1811 (which offered peculiar facilities for its determination) was found = 175.]

[Footnote 1272: Faye, _Comptes Rendus_, t. xciii., p. 13.]

[Footnote 1273: _Annales_, t. v., pt. ii., p. 137.]

[Footnote 1274: _Am. Jour. of Sc._, vol. x.x.xii. (2nd ser.), p. 57.]

[Footnote 1275: _Astr. Nach._, No. 2,082.]

[Footnote 1276: _Annales de l'Obs. de Moscou_, t. vi., pt. i., p. 60.]

[Footnote 1277: _Astr. Register_, March, 1883.]

[Footnote 1278: _Astr. Nach._, No. 3,018.]

[Footnote 1279: _Ibid._, No. 3,093.]

[Footnote 1280: _Const.i.tution de l'Es.p.a.ce Celeste_, p. 224.]

[Footnote 1281: _Astroph. Jour._, vol. iii., p. 36.]

[Footnote 1282: _Physikalische Zeitschrift_, November 10 and 17, 1900; _Astroph. Jour._, vol. xiii., p. 344. _Cf._ Schwarzschild, _Sitzungsb._, Munchen, 1901, Heft iii.; J. Hahn, _Nature_, vols. lxv., p. 415; lxvi., p. 55.]

[Footnote 1283: _Astr. Nach._, No. 2,307.]

[Footnote 1284: _Ibid._, No. 2,304.]

[Footnote 1285: _Observatory_, vol. iii., p. 390.]

[Footnote 1286: _Astr. Nach._, No. 2,319.]

[Footnote 1287: _Ueber die Kometen von 371 v. Chr._, 1668, 1843, I. und 1880 I. Gottingen, 1880.]

[Footnote 1288: _Meteor._, lib. i., cap. 6.]

[Footnote 1289: _Mem. Soc. Phys. de Geneve_, t. xxviii., p. 23.]

[Footnote 1290: _Annales de l'Obs. de Moscou_, t. vii., pt. i., p. 60.]

[Footnote 1291: Bredikhine, _Annales_, t. viii., p. 68.]

[Footnote 1292: _Am. Jour. of Sc._, vol. xxii., p. 305.]

[Footnote 1293: Messrs. Burton and Green observed a dilatation of the stellar image into a nebulous patch by the transmission of its rays through a nuclear jet of the comet. _Am. Jour. of Sc._, vol. xxii., p.

163.]

[Footnote 1294: _Archives des Sciences_, t. viii., p. 535. _Cf._ Perrine's negative results for Swift's comet in 1899, _Astr. Nach._, No.

3,602.]

[Footnote 1295: Riem concluded in 1896 for a definitive period of 2,429 years; _Observatory_, vol. xix., p. 282.]

[Footnote 1296: Holden, _Publ. Astr. Pac. Soc._, vol. ix., p. 89.]

[Footnote 1297: _Annuaire_, Paris, 1882, p. 781.]

[Footnote 1298: _Annuaire_, 1882, p. 766.]

[Footnote 1299: _Am. Jour. of Sc._, vol. xxii., p. 134.]

[Footnote 1300: _Report Brit. a.s.soc._, 1881, p. 520.]

[Footnote 1301: _Month. Not._, vol. xlii., p. 14; _Am. Jour. of Sc._, vol. xxii., p. 136.]

[Footnote 1302: Piazzi Smyth, _Nature_, vol. xxiv., p. 430.]

[Footnote 1303: _Astr. Nach._, No. 2,395.]

[Footnote 1304: _Ibid._]

[Footnote 1305: _Astr. Nach._, No. 2,411.]

[Footnote 1306: _Month. Not._, vol. xlii., p. 49.]

[Footnote 1307: _Astr. Nach._, No. 2,414.]

[Footnote 1308: _Copernicus_, vol. ii., p. 229.]

[Footnote 1309: _Astr. Nach._, Nos. 2,434, 2,437.]

[Footnote 1310: _Ibid._, No. 2,441.]

[Footnote 1311: _Report Brit. a.s.soc._, 1882, p. 442.]

[Footnote 1312: J. J. Parsons, _Am. Jour. of Science_, vol. xxvii., p.

34.]