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irrespective of the remarkable growth of a taste for Astronomy which has marked the last quarter of a century, alike in Great Britain, Greater Britain, and North America, to say nothing of the Continent of Europe, there can be no doubt that comets have, and always have had, a great fasci- nation for that student of science newly named "the man in the street". And next in order of interest certainly come Eclipses, Solar and Lunar, and Fire-balls and "Shooting Stars"; but these do not concern us now. It is not difficult to see why all these phenomena should be attractive to the popular mind: they are all sights which can be seen, and in a measure be studied, without professional teaching, and without much (or any) instrumental assistance.

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