There can be but one interpretation of this remarkable fact--a fact
really proved, be it noticed (as I and others have maintained since the
retreat of the comet of 1882), independently of the evidence supplied by
the great southern comet of the present year. These comets must all
originally have been one comet, though now they are distinct bodies. For
there is no reasonable way (indeed, no possible way) of imagining the
separate formation of two or more comets at different times which should
thereafter travel in the same path.
No theory of the origin of comets ever suggested, none even which can be
imagined, could account for such a peculiarity. Whereas, on the other
hand, we have direct evidence showing how a comet, originally single,
may be transformed into two or more comets traveling on the same, or
nearly the same, track.
The comet called Biela's, which had circuited as a single comet up to
the year 1846 (during a period of unknown duration in the past--probably
during millions of years), divided then into two, and has since broken
up into so many parts that each cometic fragment is separately
undiscernible. The two comets into which Biela's divided, in 1846, were
watched long enough to show that had their separate existence continued
(visibly), they would have been found, in the fullness of time,
traveling at distances very far apart, though on nearly the same orbit.
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