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Updated: June 16, 2025
An Account of Donati's Comet of 1858. By George P. Bond. Extracted from the Mathematical Monthly. Cambridge. John Bartlett. 4to. 50 cts. What will He Do with It? By Pisistratus Caxton. A Novel. By Sir E. Bulwer Lytton, Bart. New York. Harper & Brothers. 8vo. $1.00. The Comedies of Terence. By Henry Thomas Riley, B.A. To which is added the Blank Verse Translation of George Colman. New York.
In the telescope, the "two interlacing arcs of light" which had adorned the head of Coggia's comet were reproduced; while a curious dorsal spine of strong illumination formed the axis of the tail, which extended in clear skies over an arc of 20°. It belonged to the same "type" as Donati's great plume; the particles composing it being driven from the sun by a force twice as powerful as that urging them towards it.
The comets of 1807 and 1881 are, then, regarded with much probability as fragments of a primitive disrupted body, one following in the wake of the other at an interval of seventy-four years. Imperfect photographs were taken of Donati's comet both in England and America; but Tebbutt's comet was the first to which the process was satisfactorily applied.
The principal blacksmith of Ega, Senor Macedo, was also an Indian, and a very sensible fellow. He sometimes filled minor offices in the government of the place. He used to come very frequently to my house to chat, and was always striving to acquire solid information about things. When Donati's comet appeared, he took a great interest in it.
Some flew out straight and gleaming like a steel sword; others rushed here and there irregularly like chips struck off a red-hot rock; and others left long trails of glittering cosmical dust behind them like the nebulous tail of Donati's comet.
It was, nevertheless, negatived by the first application of the spectroscope to these bodies. Very few comets have been so well or so long observed as Donati's. It was visible to the naked eye during 112 days; it was telescopically discernible for 275, the last observation having been made by Mr. William Mann at the Cape of Good Hope, March 4, 1859.
This tribe held firm against all propositions of the government to treat with them, until Donati's comet appeared in 1858; when, supposing it to be a great fiery broom sent to sweep them from the earth, they accepted a treaty. The "Battle of Four Lakes" was fought in this country. An old man whom we met at the fort in Walla Walla, who saw this battle, gave us some account of it.
By its study knowledge was indeed materially advanced, but along the old lines. No quick and vivid illumination broke upon its path. Quite insignificant objects as we have already partly seen have often proved more vitally instructive. Donati's comet has been identified with no other.
Unfortunately, she had been prematurely driven from her post of observation; but she had seen the Emperor come in, and Barbara, without noticing his altered expression, or rather, probably, to cheer him by something especially merry, gaily began Baldassare Donati's superb dancing-master's song, "Qui la gagliarda vuol imparare," at the same time in the merriest, most graceful manner imitating the movements of the gagliarda dancer.
The comet of 1744, for instance, had at one time no less than seven tails spread in a wide curved brush behind it. Donati's comet of 1858 also had at least two tails, the principal one sword-shaped and the other long, narrow, and as straight as a rule.
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