Several comets have been found to be short period bodies, which, though bright enough to have been easily seen, have yet never been noticed at any previous appearance. It is known that some at least of these owe their present orbits to the fact that having come near to one or other of the planets they have been, so to speak, captured, and diverted from the track which they formerly pursued. Several of the planets have more or less numerous flocks of comets associated with them which they have thus captured and introduced into a short period career. Jupiter has more than a score in his group, while Saturn, Uranus and Neptune have smaller retinues. There can be no question that a comet of first-class splendour, such as that of 1811, that of 1858, or that of 1861, is one of the most impressive spectacles that the heavens have to offer. Unfortunately it is one which the present generation, at least in the northern hemisphere, has had but little opportunity of witnessing. Chambers notices 'that it may be taken as a fact that a bright and conspicuous comet comes about once in ten years, and a very remarkable comet once every thirty years;' and adds, 'tested then by either standard of words "bright and conspicuous," or "specially celebrated," it may be affirmed that a good comet is now due.' It is eleven years since that hopeful anticipation was penned, and we are still waiting, not only for the 'specially celebrated,' but even for the 'bright and conspicuous' comet; so that on the whole we may be said to have a grievance. Still, there is no saying when the grievance may be removed, as comets have a knack of being unexpected in their developments; and it may be that some unconsidered little patch of haze is even now drawing in from the depths which may yet develop into a portent as wonderful as those that astonished the generation before us in 1858 and 1861. The multitude of comets is, in all probability, enormous. Between the beginning of the Christian era and 1888 the number recorded was, according to Chambers, 850; but the real number for that period must have been indefinitely greater, as, for upwards of 1600 out of the 1888 years, only those comets which were visible to the naked eye could have been recorded--a very small proportion of the whole. The period 1801 to 1888 shows 270, so that in less than one century there has been recorded almost one-third of the total for nineteen centuries. At present no year goes by without the discovery of several comets; but very few of them become at all conspicuous. For example, in 1904, six comets were seen--three of these being returns of comets previously observed, and three new discoveries; but none of these proved at all notable objects in the ordinary sense, though Comet 1904 (_a_), discovered by Brooks, was pretty generally observed.