THE ASTRONOMICAL NOTICE TO QUIT.
[To THZ EDITOR Or TRI SPECTATOL"]
SIR,—I have not at hand the discussion referred to in the Spectator of May 22nd, but I have no doubt that Mr. Proctor's prediction was based on the assumption of the identity of three large comets which appeared in 1843, 1880, and 1882 respectively. No astronomer now, I fancy, believes in this identity. Comets, in fact, seem in many cases to be members of the same family ; and it is quite unsafe to infer identity from similarities in their appearance and orbits. The comet of 1882 is now believed to have a period of seven hundred or eight hundred years. But I do not believe that the falling of a comet into the sun would seriously affect us. Comets appear to have very small masses. It would require a very large comet indeed to raise the temperature of the sun to such an extent as to render England as hot as the Tropics are at present. Instead of burning us all up, such an incident might enable Dr. Nansen to reach the North Pole.
am, Sir, &c.,
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