COLLISION WITH A COMET.
Sir Robert Ball in The Times publishes the- text of a reply he has sent to an enquirer who expressed alarm as to the possibility of collision with the comet. The letter ran as follows: — "My dear , — A rhinoceros, in full charge would not feai collision with a* cobweb ! and the earth need not fear collision with a comet. '"In 1861 we passed through the tail of a comet and no one knew anything about it at the time. "Foi a hundred million) years life has been continuous on this earth, though we have been visited by at least five comets every year. If comets could ever have done the earth any harm they would have done it long ago, and you and I would not be discussing comets or anything else. "So far as I can learn we may be in the tail of Halley about 12th May; and I sincerely hope we shall. "I think Sir John Herschel said somewhere that the whole comet could be squeezed into a portmanteau. "Robert S. Ball."
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Bibliographic details
Evening Post, Volume LXXIX, Issue 77, 2 April 1910, Page 10
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179COLLISION WITH A COMET. Evening Post, Volume LXXIX, Issue 77, 2 April 1910, Page 10
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