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have been assigned to BAC 1592 by different observers) Wales. There are two vital points in Tebbutt's letter. First, he establishes that he was observing the comet only one and one-half hours before Gould, for, because of the difference in longitude the evening of June 11th in Cordoba was the morning of the 12th at Windsor, New South Wales, Australia. He then states that the object used by Gould for comparison was definitely not visible at Windsor an hour and one —half before it was seen at Cordoba. The second point is the suggestions that Dr. Gould, by mistaken identity, observed a pair of stars which, by strange coincidence, have about the same distance and direction from each other as the comet and "object." Except for a rather supercilious assumption of Dr. Gould's incompetence as an observer, Tebbutt's suggestion is not without merit. Yet there is one rather deplorable flaw in Mr. Tebbutt's letter; and we quote: "but that this object had no existence a short time previously to Dr. Gould's observation is, | think, shown by negative evidence..." This is an unjustified and ill-considered conclusion and statement. True, Mr. Tebbutt did not see the object, under conditions in which it should have been seen according to his viewpoint. His assumption was, of course, that the object or star was as distant from the earth as the comet, if, in fact, it did exist. Therefore, if Gould saw it, Tebbutt should have seen it. Tebbutt didn't see it...ergo, it wasn't ab auat there! Not satisfied with a somewhat reserved statement in Astronomische Nachrichte, Tebbutt sent a scathing letter to Observatory (1882) in which he reiterated all of his arguments, belittled Gould sarcastically, and postulated that one of the pair of stars which he thought was observed by Gould was sufficiently variable in light to have been mistaken for second magnitude while normally appearing as sixth or seventh magnitude. It would be hard to find more irrelevant data. Mr. Tebbutt was quite honest in his conviction that Dr. Gould had made some kind of crude and unpardonable error in observing. The coincidence of a double star, the components of which have about the same relative position as Dr. Gould's two objects, had let Mr. Tebbutt completely astray, and his indignation at what he considers stupidity caused him to make the unnecessary insinuation that Gould was careless. Tebbutt went so far as to invoke a temporary outburst of light in one star to account for Gould's confusion. Up to this point, nobody, including the cooler and more objective astronomical editors in Europe, had tried to explain why one skilled observer saw an object which was plainly there to be seen, while another experienced man did not see it. All efforts went toward proving one of them wrong. But the confusion was only well started. A new astronomical knight-errant entered the celestial jousting. In a publication of the Royal Astronomical Society, January 1882, we find a letter to the editor from W. Bone, M.D., another amateur in Australia. Dr. Bone deposed as follows: On June 10th, 1881, whilst measuring the position of the comet (at this time it was called comet 1881b) | noticed a peculiar discordance in each succeeding measure, and at length found that the star (?) from which | was measuring, was a rapidly moving body. At first | was inclined to believe it (the star) was the result of refraction, but this would have affected both the comet and the star nearly equally. On more careful inspection, | found it was somewhat discoid, but its light, although bright, was diffused and hazy. It moved through 6' of arc in 34m 34s of time, in a northerly direction. | telegraphed to the Melbourne Observatory and asked instructions. Bad weather prevented me from searching for it next morning and in the evening | could not succeed in again picking it up, neither could | find it where seen on the previous evening. | never received any answer from the Melbourne Observatory. This struck me as so remarkable that | decided to send you my records, Castelmaine, Victoria, 1881, October 22nd, W. Bone, M.D. In a subsequent letter, Dr. Bone says that his stray object moved about 24s in right ascension in the same interval of time, and that he estimated it at about 2.5 magnitude in brightness, which agrees 157 John Tebbutt, Observatory, Windsor, N.S.