Meanwhile, the question of the 1843 and 1880 comets was still unsettled, and it received a fresh complication by the appearance of the remarkable comet of 1882, whose transit of the sun has been already alluded to, for the orbit of this new body proved to be a reproduction, almost, but not quite exact, of those of the previous two. Astronomers were at a greater loss than ever, for if this were a return of the 1880 comet, then the conclusion followed that something was so influencing its orbit as to have shortened its period from thirty-seven to two years. The idea of the existence of some medium round the sun, capable of resisting bodies which passed through it, and thus causing them to draw closer to their centre of attraction and shortening their periods, was now revived, and it seemed as though, at its next return, this wonderful visitant must make the final plunge into the photosphere, with what consequences none could foretell. These forebodings proved to be quite baseless. The comet passed so close to the sun (within 300,000 miles of his surface), that it must have been sensibly retarded at its passage by the resisting medium, had such a thing existed; but not the slightest retardation was discernible. The comet suffered no check in its plunge through the solar surroundings, and consequently the theory of the resisting medium may be said to have received its quietus. Computation showed that the 1882 comet followed nearly the same orbit as its predecessors; and thus we are faced by the fact of families of comets, travelling in orbits that are practically identical, and succeeding one another at longer or shorter intervals. The idea that these families have each sprung from the disruption of some much larger body seems to be most probable, and it appears to be confirmed by the fact that in the 1882 comet the process of further disruption was actually witnessed. Schmidt of Athens detected one small offshoot of the great comet, which remained visible for several days. Barnard a few days later saw at least six small nebulous bodies close to their parent, and a little later Brooks observed another. 'Thus,' as Miss Agnes Clerke remarks, 'space appeared to be strewn with the filmy débris of this beautiful but fragile structure all along the track of its retreat from the sun.'