Note 43 — PART I. PHYSICAL CONSTITUTION OF COMETS.

We are informed by Diodorus that they were even able to predict the reappearance of comets, by being possessed of long continued observations; but, as was well remarked by Halley, with respect to this supposed knowledge of the Chaldeans, “Comme ils savaient aussi, nous dit le même auteur (Diodore), prédire les tremblements de terre et les tempêtes, il est hors de doute, que ces prédictions étaient chez eux de simples annonces astrologiques, plutôt que des calculs véritablement astronomiques.”—Delambre.