A COMETARY INTROSPECT.

Thames Star, Volume VI, Issue 1821, 3 November 1874, Page 2

A COMETARY INTROSPECT.

(from the scientific amehican.) From recent calculations of the elements of Co^gia's comeh by Mr. Hummer, an English astronomer, thet-e appears to be a close similarity between them and those of Comet II of 1737. There is a sufficient corrcspondenc-e, it seems, to warrant the belief that tho two comets are identicnl, aiid that w« are receiving a second visit from the vagrant bs.y which attracted the notice of the astronomers of a hundred and thirty-seven years ago We find no record of its being a very jaromiuent object, although it appears lo have been observed in many of tho «r r eat cities of Europe. JN Tor do we find statements of any peculiar phenomena connected with its appearauce. ■ There will doubtless be many who, in gazing at the cornet night after night as it gradually augments in brilliancy, will ponder as we have over the vast progress which the world has made since the era of the former visitation.

Looking at tlio condition of science in 1737, from our present standpoint, it is easier to regard the circumstances negatively, to imagine our own condition" if deprived of the results of discovery and of progress which have accumulated in the intervening years. The spot on which the building in which we now are standing, was then but a green meadow. The crowded metropolis was existing only in germ, ani that merely a few straggling streets close to the water's edge. George 11. was on the throne of England, and Louis XV. on that" of France. Both amiable sovereigns were struggling to monopolise as much of North America as possible ; and although at the time peace reigned in the colonies, it was but a temporary one, which ended in still fiercer hostilities seven years later. Sir Isaac Newton had been dead for six years, and the mathematicians of England were arrayed against those of the continent, squabbling and bickering, with an acrimony intensified by international jealousy, over the theory of gravitation. Nevvton had studied out the subject of electricity, and had invented the glass globe machine. Stephen Gray had also made some investigations, but no one had ventured a theory, nor had an application of the new phenomena been suggested. Telegraphy, the galvanic battery, the innumerable inventions based thereon, were all things of the future. There were plenty of alchemists in Europe, and the science of chemistry was just wrenching itself free from connetion with chimerical fancies. Stahl had but recently announced his theory of philogiston, a substance which Cavendish in subsequent dicoveries believed identical with hydrogen. But the transition period in chemical science was yet nearly 40 years distant. Priestley, the discoverer of oxygen, was but an infant. Black the investigator of the alkalies, and Scheele, the inventor of modern organic analysis, were likewise children. Out of the 63 elements, but 15 were known, Aluminum, chorine, oxygen, hydrogen, nitrogen, platinum, and nickle were among those which had never been recognised.

Ncwcomen's steam engine was used n the mining districts, and the boy, who sat beside'it and workea the condenser ralvea, had not been, struck with the brilliant idea of making catcfies and springs perform the labour in his stead. The Marquis of Worcester and James Watt were unknown to fame. The first railroads were in use in the coal districts of Northumberland and Durham, but the rails were nothing more than wooden beams, and iron was not to be substituted for them for 30 years; In the blast furnaces wooden beilows were in use. Puddling, rolling, and the hot blast were unknown. In Europe cast steel had never been made, and but a short lime had elapsed since tho publication of Eeaumur's work, making known the process of manufacturing ordinary steel. In this country Jonah Higby's patent, obtained from the Connecticut Legislature, for a " curious art to transmit common iron into good steel had just run its term of 10 years. Having no autonomy as a nation, we had no patent right* system in. those days, and even civilised France had made ho effort towards establishing one. The arts of photography or sunpainting in any form were undreamed of. The science of aeronautics and of agricultural chemistry had never been imagined. Surgeons hacked off the Hm^ of their victims aud seared^tbe flesh witoSred hot irons, regardless of the agony they inflicted, for anesthetics were unknown, The phenomena of digestion were- but little understood, and quinine, with hundreds of other remedies now commpn, had not been discovered.

"Whale oil was burned in the lamps, which formed the sole means of illumination when candles were absent. Petroleum, paraffin, and illuminating gas were yet to be found. In artillery and implements of war, the bayonet had. just superseded the pike, the flint lock musket was just coming into use, while a single monster cannon of the present day would have dispersed whole regiments armed with the primitive artillery then employed. Laplace bad not given his labours to the

world. Saturn's rings and satellites had hot been discovered, and the path of that planet- was supposed to bo the outer bound of our solar system. The spectroscope had made none of its wonderful revaletiors, and the distances of the fixed stars, their apparent motions, and the fact of their being suns and centres of other systems, the 5,700 nebula}, and the 136 asteroids, all were unknown. India-rubber had been discovered one year. There was no definite system ©f botany, and Cuvier's researches in natural history had not appeared. Tho caloric engine, the hydraulic press and ram, the sewing machine, and the diving bell had never been thought of. Blowpipe analysis and the atomic theory, a system of logarithms, calico printing, the steam printing press, all were yet to be invented, l\ To one had deciphered the inscriptions on the monuments of Egypt. Jennerhad not introduced vaccination, nor Hahneniaun homoeopathy as a school of medicine. Steam navigation and the screw propeller were yet to appear. . Captain Cook was making his celebiated voyages around the world. Immense portions of Australia, of Africa, of the polar regions, had never boenVisitedby civilised races. Anthracite coal had never been burned, nor the powerful explosives now known to science used to tear rocks asunder. Dentistry was unknown as a profession on this side of the Atlantic, and artificial teeth had not been invented. The first chronometer had not been completed. The pianoforte was a new-fangled invention, which no one would have ought to do with unt^ His Majesty Frederick the great ox Prussia deigned to buy one 10 years later. Polarised lights had not been discovered. No post-office system had been developed by any government, nor had any improved means of teaching the deaf and dumb been adopted. Steel pens were unknown, and the Scientific American was not one of the seven newspapers then existing in North America. Our retrospect already extends beyond "intended limits, and we have far from even summarised trie great discoveries ot the past century and a half. That our descendants will surpass us as much as we do our ancestors is within every bound of probability. When our celestial visitor again appears, as it will jn the year 2011, it will reveal itself to the gaze of earthly inhabitants, regarding the magnitude of whose knowledge and whose powers it would be idle even to speculate.