“Imagine a glare 25,000 times fiercer than that of an equatorial sunshine at noonday. In such a heat there is no solid substance we know of which would not run like water—boil—and be converted into smoke or vapor.” [Illustration: From _Knowledge_ THE SOUTHERN COMET OF JANUARY, 1887 ] In _Knowledge_ for November 1, 1887, an account is given of the remarkable southern comet first observed in January of that year, and as it is the last article on this topic written by my father for his magazine, giving a more or less detailed account of his views on the subject, the author of this book has deemed it advisable to quote it in full. It is of special interest, not only on account of its giving his theories on the subject, but for the reason that it helps to supply part of the missing chapter on “Comets and Meteors,” which he had planned for his final but unfortunately unfinished work, _Old and New Astronomy_. This work had been in course of preparation for thirty years, and that the material for such a chapter was partially compiled the writer knows from the fact that she has a keen recollection of clippings, MSS., and notes which she saw apparently awaiting classification and arrangement, a short while before her father’s departure from Florida, September 8, 1888. What became of them after his sudden death in New York a few days later, it is impossible to conjecture, unless A. C. Ranyard, who completed the book, found the chapter on comets too difficult to arrange satisfactorily. Yet even the fragments so arduously arranged and collected by my father would have been better than a missing chapter on a subject in which he was so deeply interested and to which he had devoted so much attention. To return to my father’s account of the comet of January, 1887: “The comet was first seen by a farmer and a fisherman of Blauwberg, near Cape Town, on the night of January 18–19. The same night it was seen at the Cordoba University by M. Thomé. On the next night Mr. Todd discovered it independently at the Adelaide Observatory, and watched it till the 27th. On the 22d Mr. Finlay detected the comet and was able to watch it till the 29th. At Rio de Janeiro, Mr. Cruls observed it from the 23d to the 25th, and at Windsor, New South Wales, Mr. Tebbutt observed the comet on the 28th and 30th. Moonlight interfered with further observations. “The comet’s appearance was remarkable. Its tail, long and straight, extended over an arc of thirty degrees, but there was no appreciable condensation which could be called the comet’s head. The long train of light, described as nearly equal in brightness to the Magellanic clouds, seemed to be simply cut off at that end where in most comets a nucleus and coma are shown.