But let the
modern chemist be asked to tell one whether this matter is in any way
connected with, or akin to, that of any of the gases he is acquainted
with; or again, to any of the solid elements of his chemistry. The
probable answer received will be very little calculated to solve the
world's perplexity; since, all hypotheses to the contrary
notwithstanding, cometary matter does not appear to possess even the
common law of adhesion or of chemical affinity. The reason for it is
very simple. And the truth ought long ago to have dawned upon the
experimentalists, since our little world (though so repeatedly visited
by the hairy and bearded travelers, enveloped in the evanescent veil of
their tails, and otherwise brought in contact with that matter) has
neither been smothered by an addition of nitrogen gas, nor deluged by an
excess of hydrogen, nor yet perceptibly affected by a surplus of oxygen.
The essence of cometary matter must be--and the "Adepts" say is--totally
different from any of the chemical or physical characteristics with
which the greatest chemists and physicists of the earth are familiar--
all recent hypotheses to the contrary notwithstanding.
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