ct compliance with this condition is
indispensable. If this condition is not complied with, and only one
person discovers the comet, no medal will be given for the discovery.
Otherwise, the medal will be assigned to the discoverer who earliest
complies with the condition.

"4. The communication must not only state as exactly as possible the
time of the discovery, in order to settle the question between rival
claims, but also as near as may be the place of the comet, and the
direction in which it is moving, as far as these points can be
determined from the observations of one night.

"5. If the observations of one night are not sufficient to settle these
points, the enunciation of the discovery must still be made, in
compliance with the third article. As soon as a second observation is
made, it must be communicated in like manner with the first, and with it
the longitude of the place where the discovery is made, unless it take
place at some known observatory. The expectation of obtaining a second
observation will never be received as a satisfactory reason for
postponing the communication of the first.

"6. The medal will be assigned twelve months after the discovery of the
comet, and no claim will be admitted after that period.

"7. Messrs. Baily and Schumacher are to decide if a discovery has been
made. If they differ, Mr. Gauss, of Goettingen, is to decide.

"8. Messrs. Baily and Schumacher have agreed to communicate mutually to
each other every announcement of a discovery.

"Altona, April, 1840."

On the 1st of October, 1847, at half-past ten o'clock, P.M., a
telescopic comet was discovered by Miss Maria Mitchell, of Nantucket,
nearly vertical above Polaris about five degrees. The further progress
and history of the discovery will sufficiently appear from the following
correspondence. On the 3d of October the same comet was seen at
half-past seven, P.M., at Rome, by Father de Vico, and information of
the fact was immediately communicated by him to Professor Schumacher at
Altona. On the 7th of October, at twenty minutes past nine, P.M., it was
observed by Mr. W.R. Dawes, at Camden Lodge, Cranbrook, Kent, in
England, and on the 11th it was seen by Madame Ruemker, the wife of the
director of the observatory at Hamburg. Mr. Schumacher, in announcing
this last discovery, observes: [Footnote: "Astronomische Nachrichten,"
No. 616.] "Madame Ruemker has for several years been on the lookout for
comets, and her persever