"Another instance of a similar phenomenon is recorded by Dion Cassius, who states that a comet which appeared eleven years before our era, separated itself into several small comets.
"These various examples are presented at one view, as follows:
"I. Ancient bipartition of a comet.—Seneca, Quæst. Nat., lib. VII. cap. XVI.
"II. Separation of a comet into a number of fragments, 11 B.C.—Dion Cassius.
"III. Three comets seen simultaneously pursuing the same orbit, A.D. 896—Chinese records—Comptes Rendus, tom. xx. 1845, p. 334.
"IV. Probable separation of a comet into parts, A.D. 1618.—Hevelius, Cometographia, p. 341.—Keppler, De Cometis, p. 50.
"V. Indications of separation, 1661.—Hevelius, Cometographia, p. 417.
"VI. Bipartition of Biela's comet, 1845–6.
"In view of these facts it seems highly probable, if not absolutely certain, that the process of division has taken place in several instances besides that of Biela's comet. May not the force, whatever it is, that has produced one separation, again divide the parts? And may not this action continue until the fragments become invisible? According to the theory now generally received, the periodic phenomena of shooting-stars are produced by the intersections of the orbits of such nebulous bodies with the earth's annual path. Now there is reason to believe that these meteoric rings are very elliptical, and in this respect wholly dissimilar to the rings of primitive vapor which, according to the nebular hypothesis, were successively abandoned at the solar equator; in other words, that the matter of which they are composed moves in cometary rather than planetary orbits. May not our periodic meteors be the debris of ancient but now disintegrated comets, whose matter has become distributed around their orbits?"